Ballroom tunnel maze: Berner dug a crazy cave system behind his house

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“Like this, Bearner takes revenge at the cradle: If he is a kisser in the ring, he is killed,” Peter Junker always said. The man himself, from Seewil near Rapperswil, has certainly stayed true to this motto. For decades, he dug the slope behind his home with passion and obsession.

Junker excavated the cave system every day except Sundays for 41 years. It was all over when he had a stroke in 2005. He passed away last year at the age of 90. “In the end he didn’t want anything to do with his tunnel anymore,” Barbara Junker told the “Berner Zeitung” about her crazy father.

“Hoger drilling is being done now”

Junker started digging in 1964 in search of water. He explained this in 1990 in Viktor Giacobbo’s (71) program called “Viktor’s Program”. When a truck passed by, the old cast iron pipe broke and there was no more water left for it.

«I thought it couldn’t be right to not even have my own Brünneli on my farm, so I decided: Hoger will now be drilled. He has to give me water and I dig at least 100 meters or until the water comes,” Junker said on the programme.

Words were followed by actions. He dug into the sandstone hill, first with a pick and shovel, then with a drill. But five years later the tunnel was only five meters long. When harder rocks emerged, Junker resorted to explosives; but this required later approval.

underground ballroom

Using the rock drill again, Seelander achieved this after 65 meters: he drained the spring water into a well in front of the house. “My father never used water,” his daughter told the “Berner Zeitung”. Although Junker had achieved his original goal, he continued to expand the cave system.

“In the early days he would often dig until late at night and then lie down covered in sand; he no longer had enough time to wash because he had to go back to work at 5 in the morning,” his daughter recalls. Not only a fountain, but also a magnificent festive hall was created, containing a four-meter-long banquet bench and a semicircular seating area.

His daughter rents out the hall

Junker received the building permit for his project only later, when the local council came for review. Before, Seelander didn’t ask anyone, he just did it.

But it didn’t seem to bother anyone. In a television report, a neighbor who owned the field above the cave said: “As long as Peter Junker doesn’t steal my potatoes from below, I don’t mind him keeping digging.”

What is the tunnel system used after Junker’s death for? Her daughter, together with her husband, takes care of the cave and rents out the banquet hall. “This gives us a lot of work,” admits Barbara Junker. The electrical system needs to be properly maintained to keep everything in good working order. A fan also needs to drain 20 liters of water from the hall every day, otherwise it could become uncomfortable. (gs)

Source : Blick