Searching for Zamolxe: The Polovragi Cave

The Polovragi Cave is located in the Parâng Mountains, on the left bank of the Olteț River, at an altitude of 670 m and 20 m above the river's bed, on the territory of the Polovragi commune, between the towns of Horezu and Baia de Fier, in Gorj County.
Starting from the Polovragi Monastery, we climb through the gorges, initially along the Polovragi Forest, a protected natural area for the edible chestnut and Mediterranean vegetation. Leaving the forest, the steep right bank - Mount Căpățânii and the guardian on the left - Mount Parâng, announce the entrance to the Olteț Gorges. The public utility forest road climbs steadily, parallel to the Olteț River, which, from the depths of its bed, separates the two brothers mountains, carving out real gorges, with vertical walls, for a total length of 3 kilometers.

After 200 - 300 meters of climbing through the Olteț Gorges, on the right, a gate of impressive dimensions opens, whose arrangement invites us to enter. We recognize the name: the same Polovragi. We learn that in the consciousness of the locals, a belief is still alive that the spiritual leader of the Geto-Dacians, Zamolxe, would have lived in the Polovragi Cave.

Also here, the healers processed a rare plant, called povragă, polvragă or polovragă, used by the people as a remedy against diseases. It is possible that the name of the town and, implicitly, of the cave and monastery is of Dacian origin, containing in itself an undeciphered cryptogram, about some conception of our ancestors regarding their religious belief or the medical practices so widespread in their lives. This legend is also recorded by Alexandru Vlahuță in "România Pitorească", 1901, through the description of the protective god Zamolxe who urged the Dacian people to fight, to defend the ancient land from the conquerors, and "the drops that flow and drip today from these rocks are his tears," mourning the fate of the Dacian people conquered by the Romans.

Indeed, it is a warm and humid cave (constant temperature - 9 degrees and average humidity - 90%), which "cries" with drops from infiltration, water rich in calcium carbonate, silicon dioxide, iron oxide, etc., depending on the layers it passes through, it "washes" and brings them back, with great patience, in its own excavation. Depending on the impurities that the water carries in the main gallery, it changes color from downstream to upstream, on portions that have over time, acquired names such as: The Bloodied Vault, The White Room, The Divine Hall.

The 800 meters of walkable gallery (out of the over 10 kilometers mapped by speleologists from upstream to downstream) represent the main outflow, and the tourist gate is the downstream, which explains the impressive dimensions at the entrance and, at the same time, the need to stop visiting starting with the portion inaccessible to the general public.

The first sector of the gallery (about 400 m from the entrance) presents an exceptional emotional charge because, being the most accessible portion, it has been over time a refuge for locals: Dacians, healers, monks, each having marked at least one distinct symbol. Thus, the Seat of Zamolxe corresponds at the surface, after about 350 meters of rock cover, the former Dacian fortress "Cetatuia", the burning furnaces of the polvraga plant correspond to the huge root of the extinct but petrified plant in the cave ceiling as testimony, and the place of the monks' asceticism (1505-1968) is marked by a painting made by a monk, in the black smoke technique, representing the symbol of death.

The historical chronology ends with the Source of Hopes, a spring that never dries up, behind which "looks at us" the Virgin Mary with the Child in her arms, perhaps the one from the neighboring monastery, with the feast of "The Dormition of the Mother of God".

Starting with the second sector, the Sector of Ogees, positioned between the Columns Hallway and the Suffocating Hallway, the cave becomes increasingly interesting from a geomorphological point of view: lace-like stalactite clusters, intermediate columns, domes, clusters of stalagmites, deep pools, clay seepages, ochre cave, etc., some of the forms even acquiring names due to their spectacular nature.

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