Macocha Abyss
Landmark · Czechia
Checked
The Macocha Abyss is a collapsed karst sinkhole above Vilémovice, dropping 138.5 metres to become the deepest of its kind in Central Europe. Its name recalls a 17th-century legend of a stepmother who threw her stepson into the hole out of jealousy. Two viewing platforms overlook the Punkva River's lakes far below, and a cable car links the rim to the Punkva Caves, whose tour finishes with an underground boat ride (the cable car is closed in winter).
Propast Macocha is a sheer 138.5-metre sinkhole in the Moravian Karst, the deepest light-hole abyss of its kind in Central Europe. Two viewing platforms let visitors look straight down the shaft: Horní můstek, the upper bridge, and Dolní můstek, the lower one reached by tunnel from inside the Punkva Caves. At the bottom, two lakes fed by the underground Punkva River sit 11 and 50 metres deep, and the river continues on through the cave system beyond. The abyss formed when the roof of a vast underlying cave collapsed. Its name comes from the Czech word for stepmother. Local legend says an evil stepmother threw her stepson into the pit to claim her husband's inheritance; the boy survived, and she either threw herself in from guilt or was thrown in by villagers once her crime came out.
What you see
From the upper bridge the ground simply stops: a vertical drop of more than 130 metres to two dark lakes hemmed in by sheer rock walls and forest.
Practical
A cable car runs from Skalní Mlýn up to the Horní můstek viewing platform; both stations are barrier-free, so cyclists, wheelchair users, and visitors with strollers can ride up instead of walking.
natureviewpointcavekarst