The cave Postojnska jama was first opened to tourism in 1819 and
its attendance has continually grown since then, attracting visitors
from all over the world. Although the Postojnska jama is in the first
place a show cave, it is very important from the scientific point of
view, regarding the investigations of the history of cave
sciences. Valvasor was the pioneer of natural sciences investigations
in the Postojnska jama already in 1689. The first exemplars of cave
fauna were discovered (cave beetle in 1831) or rediscovered
(Proteus in 1797)
and thus the Postojnska jama is often called the cradle of speleobiology.