Glacial Mills of Plata

Glacial mills are spiral-walled hollows of various sizes that were created by the force of water working its way through the subsoil with a water pressure of 200 km ph. The swirls were then created within a few weeks or one summer during the Ice Age, 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Glacial mills or glacial potholes can be up to 20 m wide and several hundred m deep in the Eternal Ice.

These features of nature can also be admired in the Val Passiria valley, on a smaller scale. But they are even more impressive because they seem to be drilled into the rock. It is almost unimaginable that water has created these holes by rotating stones that have been moved along with it. The approximately 20 Glacial Mills of Plata - "Gletschermühlen in Platt" in German, "Marmitte glaciali di Plata" in Italian - were discovered by chance during drainage work in the "Wirts Mous".

The largest of them has a diameter of 10.5 m, while others are only a few centimetres wide. One of the 20 glacial mills - 4 m wide and almost 3.6 m deep in total - has been fenced in and is open to the public. The hiking path no. 6 leads in 30 minutes from the village of Plata towards Pianlargo to a chapel, and from there down to the left to the destination (path no. 5).