Vjetrenica Cave, Ravno World Heritage Site

Official name

Vjetrenica Cave, Ravno | UNESCO

Country

Bosnia and Herzegovina | Map

Continent

Europe

Location

42.8361° Lat, 17.9836° Lon | Map

Code

1673

Time Zone

Europe/Sarajevo (CET, +0100)

Current Time

Category

Natural

Description

Inscribed 2024. Located in the Dinaric mountain range, the property stands out with its remarkable cave biodiversity and endemicity. Known since antiquity, the well-conserved representation of karst topography is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots for cave-dwelling fauna, notably subterranean aquatic fauna. It is home to a number of globally threatened vertebrate species, and the only subterranean tubeworm in the world, as well as a diversity of plant species endemic to the Balkans. Additionally, several of the species found in Vjetrenica Cave are tertiary and pre-tertiary relict species, meaning that many of them can be considered living fossils whose closest relatives went extinct a long time ago.