Didactic journey

The building itself is worth a visit.
As a matter of fact, the Museum is located in a beautiful structure in local calcareous stones, which covers a total area of about 500 square meters, subdivided in 350 square meters at the ground floor and 150 square meters on the first floor. The walls in calcareous stones are by themselves an exhibition of the Museum: many different forms created by erosion processes and by dissolution can be observed in the rocks; in addition, the Rudists, typical fossils from Cretaceous time, are also visible at many sites.





At the ground floor of the Museum, there is the didactic journey. The exhibition has been organized in different sections which deal schematically with the topics of interest for speleology and karst: geology, surficial karst, hypogean karst, speleogenesis, biospeleology, prehistory, archeology. The didactic journey is formed by 25 posters with great-sized photographs and explanatory texts. It is integrated by 5 show-cases containing materials realted to each and every section.

A plastic model, realized in local calcareous stone and showing a typical landscape of the south-eastern territory of Murge, is shown at the entrance of the Museum. It permits to have a three-dimensional insight into a carbonate massif, from the surface down to the karst base level. In another side of the exhibition hall, showcases with rocks, fossils, minerals, and old speleological equipment are present.








A corner of the exhibition hall is devoted to equipment and clothing of the yesterday and today speleologists, through the presence of two mannequins; between them, the old ladder which was used by Professor Franco Anelli for his first descent in the Grave di Castellana on January 23rd 1938, has been placed.




In the next future, a section of the Museum will be dedicated to the Castellana Caves and to the other important caves in the area surrounding Castellana as well, whereas another section will illustrate the most significant caves of Apulia, including Grava di Campolato, Porto Badisco Cave, the karst system of Grotta di Cava Zaccaria - Grotta delle Volpi, etc. The Museum will also host temporary naturalistic exhibitions by the pupils of secondary schools at Castellana-Grotte and nearby towns, realized as a result of the didactic activity of the Museum staff.