Bölcső-hegyi Cave

Bölcső-hegy Cave is one of the caves located in Pomáz in the Danube–Ipoly National Park. It is the deepest cave formed in volcanic rock in Hungary. It also appears in tourist guidebooks.

Description

Its entrance is on the outskirts of Pomáz, on the eastern subpeak of Bölcső-hegy, at an altitude of 545 m a.s.l. The entrance is about 0.5 m wide, a funnel-shaped, irregularly shaped opening. From the Lajos spring, one must follow the red square sign towards the east, and on this route walk about 900 m until the path begins to turn to the northeast. Here, turning onto an unmarked but frequently used, well‑maintained path heading east, one must climb upward about 300 m to the first horizontal area. In a roughly 20–30 m area here the cave entrance can be found. Its entrance is marked on tourist maps with a pit symbol.

In 1996 the cave was first called Bölcső-hegy Cave in the literature. The cave appears in the literature under the names Bölcső-hegy‑aknabarlang (Eszterhás 1989), Bölcsőhegyi aknabarlang (Bertalan 1958), Bölcső-hegy‑zsomboly (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Bölcső-hegy zsomboly (Bertalan 1976), Kolevkai‑cave (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Kolevkai‑rock cavity (Kordos 1984), Kolevkai rock cavity (Bertalan 1976), Kolevki rock cavity (Bertalan 1958), Lom‑hegy Cave (Eszterhás, Szabó, Szilvay, Tinn 1996), Lom‑hegy‑zsomboly (Mezei 1967), Lomhegyi‑zsomboly (Kordos 1984) and Lomhegyi zsomboly (Bertalan 1958).

Research history

The August 1, 1929 issue of Turistaság és Alpinizmus states that the Gyopár Tourist Association’s speleologists have fine tasks awaiting them in the exploration of the recently discovered Bölcső‑hegy (kolevka) cave. The December 7, 1929 issue of Az Ujság reveals that Gyopár TE organized a excursion, and this excursion between Szentendre and Pomáz involved the Kolevkai cave. The 1937 volume of Turisták Lapja mentions that besides the caves described in the compilation there are, of course, several smaller cavities in the Pilis Mountains, e.g. the Kolevka, which members of the Gyopár Tourist Association would like to explore. The 1956 Karst and Cave Research Information notes that the Food Industry Ministry’s Kinizsi SK Cave Research Group had among its work areas the Bölcső‑hegy rock cavities.

The 1958 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin mentions that the Kolevki rock cavity (Bölcsőhegy cave, Lomhegy pit) is about 15 m long and about 6–8 m deep. The cave formed in andesite tuff is located at the foot of Bölcső Hill, in the forest of Balázs Kovács. The description was written based on the report of Béla Albert from 1944. Later it was investigated by Gábor Láng. According to the Pilis guidebook published in 1967, the entrance of the Lomhegy pit, which is funnel-shaped, is located in the dense shrubbery on the ridge of Lom Hill, north of the Bölcső Hill rising above the Ságvári tourist house. The cavity formed in andesite tuff is 6–8 m deep.

The 1968–1971 Karst and Cave Research notes that in the Pilis Mountains, in the coarse-grained andesite tuff of Bölcső Hill, the cavity is located along a crack oriented ENE–WSW. The Kolevka rock cavity is 20 m long and trumpet-shaped. In the Pilis guidebook published in 1974, in the list of caves of the Pilis and Visegrád Mountains (pages 19–20), it is mentioned that the Lomhegy pit lies between the caves of the Pilis and Visegrád Mountains. The description of the Visegrád Mountains caves concerning the Lomhegy pit matches the description of the Bölcső Hill cave presented in the 1967 guidebook. In the Hungarian speleology bibliography compiled by Károly Bertalan and László Schőnviszky and published in 1976, the cave in the Pilis Mountains is listed under the names Bölcső‑hegyi (Kolevkai)‑zsomboly, with the variants Kolevkai‑cave and Bölcső‑hegyi‑zsomboly. The cave name index mentions one literary work that deals with the cave.

In the manuscript completed in 1976 and written by Bertalan Károly it reads that in the Visegrád Mountains and the Pilis Mountains, at Pomáz, lies the Bölcső-hegy pit, which also goes by the names Lomhegyi pit and Kolevkai rock cavity. On the D subpeak of Bölcső-hegy, from the 534 ridge point to D, on the K side of the tourist trail, 10 m from the path, at an altitude of 545 m a.s.l., is its entrance. Its entrance is about 0.5 m wide, a funnel-shaped, irregularly shaped opening. The cave is about 15 m long and 8 m deep. The tectonic fissure cave formed along a fault line. The part of the manuscript describing the cavity was written based on two literary works. In the national cave list of the book *Magyarország barlangjai* published in 1984, the cave appears under the name Bölcső-hegyi-zsomboly with the name variants Lomhegyi-zsomboly and Kolevkai-sziklaüreg among the caves of the Szentendre–Visegrád Mountains. Associated with the list, on a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographic location of the Dunazug Mountains caves, the geographic location of the cave is shown.