Balamutivska cave
Balamutivska is a cave, a geological natural monument of national importance in Ukraine. It is located in the Zastavna district of Chernivtsi region, not far from the northeastern outskirts of the village of Balamutivka. The area of the natural monument is 10 hectares. The status was granted according to the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 21.07.1965 No. 711, the current status - since 1975. It is under the jurisdiction of the Balamutivka village council. There are two more interesting caves in the Storozhynets district - Bukovynka and Cinderella.
The total length of the cavity is 263 meters, the area is 457 square meters, and the volume is 1272 cubic meters. The entrance is located in the upper part of the right rocky slope of the Dniester valley, and is a spacious grotto 20 m wide, about 15 m long, and up to 10 m high. The bottom of the grotto is covered with gypsum blocks. The cave itself is low and relatively narrow. The gallery is about 1-1.5 m high and 1-2 m wide. A stream flows in it.
During archaeological research in the grotto, wall paintings of the Mesolithic period (12-10 thousand years BC) were discovered, which are of great archaeological and historical value.
The cave with anthropo- and zoomorphic wall paintings of primitive people of the Mesolithic period is protected. It is of great archaeological value. The cave belongs to the sewer type, that is, it begins with a water catchment funnel in the beam of the high 5th terrace of the Dniester and ends with a grotto in a cape-shaped rocky ledge of the canyon. The largest grotto is approx. 16 m, 18 m long, 6-8 m high. A half-flooded gallery, explored at a distance of 240 m, runs from the grotto.
A note about Bukovyna caves
- Ukrainian lands have a lot of mysterious and unknown things, but there are many more secrets underground. There are mysterious caves that have played an important role in history for the locals. Some of them were inhabited by monks, some served as hiding places for rebels, and other cave passages still keep secrets.
- More than 130 caves are already known in Bukovyna. They are different: vertical, horizontal, small and large, with underground lakes and rivers - each one is unique. One can be 5 meters long, and, for example, the Cinderella Cave is over 90 km long. However, there are only three large caves longer than one kilometer: Cinderella and Bukovynka (5.5 km) in the Novoselytsia district and the Chornopotocka cave (1 km and 5 meters long) in the Zastavna district.
- A cave hyena's lair was found in one of the caves in Bukovyna. There are also remains of animals that were preyed upon by the hyena: bison, cave bears, horses, and deer. They are about 42 thousand years old.
- There are a number of caves in the Dniester basin where monks once lived. There are over a hundred such cave hermitages and monasteries. Most of them appeared in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Occasionally there are cells of the twelfth century, the time of Kyivan Rus.
- There are about ten such cave complexes in the Chernivtsi region, for example, the Neporotiv (Galician) Monastery in Sokyryany district, the village of Babyn in Zastavna district has the remains of cells, and the village of Vasyliv has traces of a monk's residence, and even on the territory of the Dniester PSPP, the remains of cells were found in the rocks. The Halychyna St. Nicholas Cave Monastery is still in operation today.
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