Preuß-Höhle

The Preuß-Höhle is a karst cave in the Hönnetal valley, cut into middle-Devonian limestone. It lies on the western flank of the valley, about 235 metres above sea level, facing a seventy-metre rock wall near Balve-Sanssouci. The cave runs roughly 150 metres deep, with a narrow rear passage once walled off that now holds striking stalactites. In the Second World War a larger chamber was blasted behind the entrance to serve as an air-raid shelter, its two-metre-wide doorway later sealed with an iron door. The cave was owned in 1967 by the Rheinisch-Westfälische Kalkwerke’s Hönnetal works before being recognised in 2013 as a protected geotope by North Rhine-Westphalia.

What makes the cave worth a visit are the contrasting spaces and the traces of its wartime use. The blasted chamber still shows the raw scars of the explosion, while the original entrance passage leads deeper into the massif. Inside, visitors find delicate calcite formations clinging to the ceiling and walls, especially where the narrow rear gallery opens up. The contrast between the rough wartime chamber and the delicate natural structures gives the cave its character. Its protected status keeps the site accessible without heavy commercialisation.

A walk through the Preuß-Höhle starts at the modest entrance framed by the limestone cliff. The first metres bring the blasted chamber into view, its high ceiling and rough walls still bearing the marks of the blast. Further in, the passage narrows and the air grows cooler as stalactites appear above. The rear section, once sealed off, reveals finer sinter deposits and quieter corners where light barely reaches. Outside, the Hönnetal valley offers quiet woodland paths and views back to the cave’s rock face.