Ibex on the ridge, the Eiger on the horizon.
St. Beatus Holen (Swiss caves)
A river runs beneath the mountain, cold and constant, whatever season waits outside.
The St. Beatus Caves open into the northern flank of the Niederhorn massif, above the northeastern shore of Lake Thun. Fourteen kilometres of the cave system have been explored to date; visitors follow a single kilometre, lit and secured, along 297 steps that pass waterfalls and stalactite formations built up over millions of years. Inside, the temperature holds steady at 8 to 10 degrees, regardless of the season outside.
Legend places an Irish monk named Beatus here in the second century, driving out a dragon and staying to live in the cave's entrance. Stone Age remains found nearby suggest people sheltered in this rock long before he did. The cave museum, included with admission, explains how water shaped these passages out of limestone.
The path ends where it began: at daylight, at the lake, with the sound of the stream that ran through the passage now spilling into open air.
