It is located next to the village of Lokev in the municipality of Sežana on the Karst Plateau in southwestern Slovenia.

Until the mid-19th century it was known as the biggest, most beautiful, and most frequently visited cave of the Classical Karst.

It attracted artists such as Ferdinand Runk and Peter Fendi, who was awarded a gold medal in 1821 for his oil painting of the cave.

Since 1986, the annual Vilenica International Literary Festival has taken place in the cave and in the towns and villages of the Karst and elsewhere.

The central part of the festival is the conferral of the Vilenica Prize for literature by the Slovene Writers' Association.