Barit Cave

Barit Cave is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Budai Landscape Protection Zone of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in the 3rd district of Budapest. It was formed by connecting the 6th rock cavity of Mátyás Hill and the 7th rock cavity of Mátyás Hill. The two caves often appear in descriptions as Cave No. 1 and Cave No. 2. It is the longest cave of the DK quarry on Mátyás Hill. It is the oldest karst cave of the Buda thermal karst formed by mineral water.

Description

In the K part of the Buda thermal karst, on Mátyás Hill, on the upper mining level of the DK quarry that is no longer worked, at the ÉNy (left) corner, in a rock wall, the three entrances are close to each other. It is close to the Pál Valley cave system. To the right of the Main entrance, below it, is the Lower entrance. To the left of the Main entrance, above it, in a hard‑to‑reach place, is the Upper entrance. The Main entrance is at 236 m, the Lower entrance at 233.3 m and the Upper entrance at 240 m above sea level. The Main entrance, opened during quarrying, is arched and horizontally oriented and is the entrance of Cave No. 1, as is the fissure‑shaped, slope‑oriented Lower entrance, 15 m above the quarry floor, which was deliberately and artificially created and leads into Cave No. 1. The Upper entrance, opened during quarrying, is triangular and horizontally oriented and is the entrance of Cave No. 2. The Main entrance is 2.15 m wide and 1.3 m high. The Upper entrance is 60 cm wide and 60 cm high. The Lower entrance is 60 cm wide and 80 cm high. The entrances can be reached by climbing a steep debris slope.

The cave formed in Upper Eocene limestone, in the Szépvölgyi Limestone Formation. It was created along a tectonic fissure due to mixing corrosion of thermal waters rising from depth. It is a branching, multilevel cave. After the Lower entrance there is a small chamber. At the eastern end of the chamber a iron door closes the passage and at the western end the Lower entrance, formed by widening a crack, opens. After the Main entrance there follows a vestibule of about 2 m², whose eastern side has a flat, cross‑section of a plum seed and a vertical vault. The vault wall is covered with overturned Borsok stone. From the vault opening to the east, after a 50 × 80 cm cross‑section narrowing, one can enter, through a 3.5 m deep shaft, the room that contains the Lower entrance.

After the iron door, one can reach the cave’s largest chamber, the almost 10 m long and 6 m wide Great Hall, by a 6 m long corridor running northwest–southeast. The corridor’s northwest end approaches the surface, probably under a surface debris pit. In the formation of the Great Hall a crack filled with calcite from a wolf‑tooth formation, tectonically created in a phase preceding the cave’s development, was crossed; its remnants are visible on the ceiling of the hall. These are heavily damaged due to mineral collection. On the walls and ceiling of the hall the thermal‑water activity in several phases created solution walls and gas channels. The hall contains the most numerous examples of early‑stage barite precipitation. Interesting are the small solution domes opening on the ceiling, generally with a plum‑seed cross‑section and 20–40 cm diameter, with solution walls, similar to those seen in the side branches discovered in 1997 and 1998.

In the westernmost part of the hall a funnel opens, through which the upper level formed about 5 m higher, the passages of the 2nd floor cave, can be accessed. Funnel walls also contain helictite solution forms. On the east and east‑northeast sides of the hall very steep passages begin, following tectonic preformation. A funnel ending in spherical chambers starts from the east‑northeast passage. About 10 m from the Great Hall, in the passage opening to the east, there is a large calcite block, the Calcite Whale. The block probably detached from the passage wall, which is evidenced by a very drafty, narrow crack running on the south side. On the west side of the Calcite Whale researchers reached, by excavation, a section that recalls the cave’s original speleothem richness. On a part of the wall covered with residual scalenohedral calcite crystals, a stalagmite has formed, which also covers the lower part of the calcite crust. The cave was sealed primarily because of the speleothem richness of this section. In addition to the shaft leading to the upper level, the Fox Branch opens to the north. At the top of the branch there are many bubble tubes, spherical columns and inflow funnels.

The 2nd floor cave (the upper level of Barit Cave) differs greatly in shape from the 1st floor cave. In the 2nd floor cave characteristic are the stacked spherical columns, whose lower half in some places is thickly encrusted with stalagmite. Crescent‑shaped and shell‑shaped solution forms are also common. Twelve metres from the Upper Entrance a funnel leads to the third level, which ends in a large spherical chamber.

Stalactites, spherical chambers, spherical columns, ceiling channels, bubble tubes, calcium plates, barite plates, limonite, encrustations, rhombohedral calcite, encrustations, scalenohedral calcite, encrustations, barite encrustations, stalactite poisoning and fossils, as well as typical, i.e., spherical pea stones can be observed in the cave. Most of the pea stones are re‑dissolved. Primary karst sediment fill and leaching also occur in the passages. Calcium sheet occurs on several levels, typically in a thickened and cemented state. The sealed and undeveloped cave is accessible with the permission of the Danube–Ipoly National Park Directorate and with basic caving equipment; part of it can be traversed by easy climbing. Up to 4 groups may visit per day and a group may consist of up to 8 persons.