Pekárna Cave

The Pekárna Cave is an important archaeological site in the southern part of the Moravian Karst, located in the valley of Říčka near Ochoz u Brno. This tunnel cave served as a refuge for prehistoric people. The findings of the magdalénien period, which include unique engravings on bones and parodies, were especially famous.

The locality, formerly known as Kostelík or Děravica, represents a fire-infidelity cave of water that has been flowing in the past since the Hostěnický forfeiture. The object consists of a single, 64-metre-long corridor, which is naturally lit by daylight almost throughout its length. The end of the hall closes the boulder cave under the chimney. Although there is a presumption that the corridor continues towards the Hostannice, attempts to penetrate the bead using the bays in 1947, 1952 and 1959 were not successful.

Archaeological research has shown the settlement of the site from paleolithic to neolithic, and the Bronze period to the period of the Hallatite. The most significant findings come from the period of magdalene, namely the first warmer fluctuation of the late glacial around 11,000 BC. At this time, Central Europe was at the end of the last ice age, and hunters specialized in reindeer, horses and hares. The fireplaces found and numerous tools made of stone, bones and antlers show intensive use of space.

Among the most important discoveries are engravings on the horse's ribs, such as the Battle of Bison from 1927 or the Paging Horse from 1963. The uniqueness of these objects is that it is the first preserved representation of the enclosed scene in ancient art, unlike the usual findings of unrelated objects. Other valuable artifacts are bear engravings on antlers or animal heads on bone objects.

The history of research began in 1880 with the work of Jan Knies, which was followed by Jindřich Wankel and Martin Kříž. The most extensive survey was conducted between 1925 and 1930 by Professor Karel Absolon. Later, between 1954 and 1961 and 1965, he examined the platform outside the Bohuslav Klíma cave, which was followed by Jiří Svoboda between 1986 and 1987. The findings of these expeditions are today stored in the Institute of Anthropos of the Moravian Museum and the Archaeological Institute in Brno.

The Pekárna Cave is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic and is part of the nature reserve of the River Valley. In 1933 it was declared a natural monument, but as of 30 November 2025 it was excluded from the register of specially protected areas due to a lack of declaration documentation. The wider public is also known from literature, as the writer Eduard Štorch used the cave as a temporary shelter for hunting groups in his novel Mammoths.

This space represents an extraordinary proof of the prehistoric settlement and artistic sensations of our ancestors. The visit to Bakárny offers the opportunity to see the history of human presence in the region of Moravian Karst and to know the place that has fundamentally affected our understanding of paleolithic culture.