Vela Spila, Archaeological cave in Vela Luka, Croatia
Vela Spila is a large cave near Vela Luka with two natural openings in its ceiling. The chamber stretches approximately 40 meters long and rises about 17 meters high, positioned at roughly 130 meters above sea level.
People began living in this cave roughly 20,000 years ago. Over subsequent millennia, inhabitants from the Stone Age through the Roman period used this site as shelter.
This cave served as a shelter and home for people across many centuries. Today visitors can sense the connection between ancient inhabitants and the landscape they occupied.
You can reach the cave by following a road of about 2.5 kilometers from Kale cove or by walking a mountain path. The best time to visit is between 9 and 20 o'clock when sufficient daylight enters through the openings.
Archaeologists found 36 ceramic pieces here from the Upper Paleolithic period, among the oldest in Southeast Europe. This discovery shows that artistic thinking and craft skills emerged here much earlier than previously known.
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