Diósdi Római Cave

The Diósdi Roman Cave is one of the caves located on the Tétényi plateau, in the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in the Tétényi Plateau Nature Conservation Area.

Description

On the Tétényi plateau, in the Tétényi Plateau Nature Conservation Area, on the southwestern side of the abandoned and reclaimed stone quarry yard next to Léda Street in Diósdi, at the top of the quarry’s rock wall, on a small ledge, there is an entrance 3 metres wide and 1.33 metres high. The cave formed in the middle Miocene karstic limestone. It was created by corrosion following the plane of the stratigraphic layer. The cave developed close to the surface, with about one metre of rock above it.

Single-level and horizontal cave. There are no formations inside, its walls are almost everywhere black from soot. According to detailed survey the cave’s length is 13.6 metres, depth 0.2 metres, height 1.3 metres, vertical extent 1.5 metres and horizontal extent 8.6 metres. The hard-to-reach cave is freely visitable. It can be viewed with basic caving equipment and light climbing. The competent nature‑conservation authority of the cave is the Danube–Ipoly National Park.

Arpád Halász recorded a story he heard from an elderly person in Diósdi, according to which a hermit once lived in it and the hermit used to tell wonderful tales to the bearded men about great battles. The hermit went to the village for food and obtained water from a nearby spring, until he vanished without a trace from the area. According to locals he was probably a runaway Turkish Muslim who hid in the cave from his pursuers. Sometimes he was seen sitting on the rock in a turban, facing east and praying.

The cave occurs in the literature under the names Diósdi “Roman” cave (Bertalan 1976), Diósdi “Roman”-cave (Kordos 1984), Roman-cave (Bertalan 1976) and Roman cave (Halász 1963). In 2005 the cave was first called Diósdi Roman-cave in the literature.

Research History

The cave was discovered during stone mining. On July 20, 1941 Arpád Halász entered it and surveyed the cave. At that time he drew the cave’s floor plan map and took photographs of the cave. He found prehistoric and migration‑period pottery shards in the cavity. In his manuscript from 1963 he proposed that the cave’s name be Roman cave, because a small Roman road once passed in front of the cave. The manuscript contains a map sketch showing the cave’s geographical location.

In the manuscript titled *Cave Register of Hungary*, completed in 1976, it is readable that the Diósdi “Roman” cave (Roman-cave) located in Diósd in the Buda Hills is 13 m long and 1.7 m high. The entrance of the cave, which is of a fissure type, is situated on the edge of a stone quarry 275° from the Diósd church, 1 km away, and 1 km from the sand mine. The manuscript was written based on Arpád Halász’s manuscript dated December 18, 1963.

In the national cave list of the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984, the cave in the Buda Mountains appears under the name Diósdi “Roman”-cave. Associated with the list is a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographical location of the caves of the Danube‑Zug Mountains, on which the cave’s geographical location is shown. In 2005 Attila Gazda surveyed the cave located in Diósd, and then on March 5, 2005, based on the survey he prepared the floor‑plan map of Diósdi Roman-cave and two cross‑section maps. On the floor‑plan map, which shows the east direction, the positions of the two cross‑sections in the cave can be observed.