
Stopica Cave Zlatibor
Stopica Cave is famous for its ‘bigren ‘tubs with their unique characteristics representing the hallmark of the Cave, being made from the same limestone that has been deposited over the ages.
Stopica Cave is a river cave with the Trnavski brook running through it. It consists of three speleological and hydro horizons: known as the occasionally flooded, the river horison and the youngest one, the horison of cracks. Without its youngest system, Stopica Cave is 1.691,5 m long, covering an area of 7.911,5 m2 and has a volume of more than 120.000 m3 . The cave has an impressive entrance hole from the right side of the Pristavica river.It is situated at 711,18 m above the sea- level with its width being 35 m, and it is height 18m.The limestone layer in the cave dates from the Trias period and is over 100m thick. The climate in the cave is influenced by the outer climate being cold in winter and warm in summer.
The cave got its name after the little village Stopici that belongs to the village Rozanstvo. The first documented records of Stopica Cave were left by Radoslav Vasovic in the Minutes of Serbian Geology Society in 1901. The first speleological research was made by our great research worker and founder of scientific speleology, Mr.Jovan Cvijic in the years 1909 and 1913.

Stopica Cave is composed of 5 units: the Light hall, the Dark hall, the Big hall with tubs, the Canal and the River canal.
The tourist part of the Cave has several attractive elements, such as a broad entrance, ‘dugure’ – openings on the ceiling, a sipar arch ‘Dog’s cemetery’, a waterfall ‘The source of life’, and a many ‘bigren’ tubs.
The ‘bigren ‘tubs with their unique characteristics represent the hallmark of the Cave by way of the limestone that has been deposited over the ages. They are deepened by stone walls or by curved reddish folds in which water is collected and poured out into baths in the cascades. ‘Bigren’ tubs are occasionally flooded and they differ from some of the other tubs in Serbia by way of their size and depth, some of them being up to 7 metres long.
In the River canal there is a whirlpool under which a ‘bigren toboggan’ begins, which continues to ‘bigren cascades’, among which are ‘bigren tubs’ and ‘giant pots’. Water comes pouring down the cascades making small waterfalls when the water is low, while it creates a unique 9,44 m high waterfall when there is an abundance of water. You cannot even hear the person next to you because of the deafening noise of the powerful water. It seems the foaming water is pouring down the sky while the air is trembling because of water drops with cold coming from the wet walls leaving visitors shivering in the pitch – darkness of this cave. In spite of chill it causes, the waterfall is called ‘The Source of life’ and well worth the visit