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promote tourist activities at Gruta do Natal, with the construction of a new building, which was integrated into the surrounding landscape. This building was sued to shelter an electric generator, to provide permanent lighting within the cave; protect the site from vandalism; and provide an interpretative centre for visitors to the site. The building includes washrooms, a generator room, and an access-way and staircase to the cave. Inaugurated on 1 December 1998, the anniversary date of the mountaineering association, it was opened to the public on 1 June 1999.
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constructed a rustic house (typical of the hay-loft/barns) to support activities during the site's exploration. The simple structure was also the centre of vandal attacks and criminal activities over its history, resulting in its degradation. In 1989, the mountaineering group began a project to
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following the first exploratory investigation, when the explorers discovered the remains of a horse, which may have fallen at the entrance of the cave. Later, after 25 December 1969, with the assistance of the eastern patriarch, D. José Vieira
Alvernaz, islanders began referring the cave as the
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The interior circuit was developed so that visitors would not follow the same trajectory coming and going along the route, while providing information about the histo-cultural traditions of this cave, in addition to the scientific and geological history. It is a pedagogic meeting-point used by
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professors and teachers to present the history of the formative forces that occur in the archipelago of the Azores. The site is open to the public from June to
September, every day, throughout the afternoons, with special openings coordinated through the
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It is a lava tube of 697 metres (2,287 ft) length, with easy access, high ceiling and floor with slight slope. The interior of the cave includes geological structures such as different examples of lava, estalcites and lateral protuberances.
312:. It was on this date that they opened the cave to the public, with a simple access-way and rudimentary lighting. Traditionally, a Christmas mass is held at the site, but there have also been baptisms and at least one marriage on the site.
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The caves formation is unclear. Its genesis can be explained by the ancient lava fields that developed from fissural vents, that flowed through the valley between the larger volcanic peaks.
440:(in Portuguese), Horta (Azores), Portugal: Secretária Regional do Ambiente e do Mar/Grupo de Trabalho para o Estudo Património Espeleological dos Açores, 2013
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Reserva
Florestal Natural da Serra de Santa Bárbara e Mistérios Negros
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The Gruta do Natal is located near the Picos Gordos, within the
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Santa Bárbara and Mistérios Negros
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155:38°47′28″N
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335:Geography
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