Erdőhát-út Cave

Erdőhát-út Cave is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Buda Mountains within the Danube–Ipoly National Park. Many know it because it opens alongside a tourist trail. It is also mentioned in tourist guidebooks.

Description

It opens at the end of Erdőhát Road, not far from the summit, on the northern ridge of the former Mátyáshegy district in Budapest’s 3rd district. It is most easily reached by following the blue cross sign branching off from the blue stripe of the National Blue Trail (this junction is near the Fenyőgyöngye Restaurant), either from the Fenyőgyöngye side or from the Bécsi Road side. Its natural, almost vertical, vertically oriented entrance, fenced with iron bars, opens directly beside the tourist trail.

According to old descriptions, the entrance part formed in upper Eocene bryozoan marl, lower in limestone. According to Sándor Kraus’s 1983 description, it is in Triassic volcanic limestone. Kraus (1984, 1990) and Szabolcs Leél-Őssy (1995) state that it formed in Triassic volcanic dolomite. This is probably the enclosing rock. After the entrance there is a chamber. The spherical stalagmites found inside indicate a hydrothermal origin. The cave became blocked and is an old, sulfurous spring vent. It is not sealed, but can be visited with rope techniques and a permit.

Further excavation is difficult because of material removal.

The cave appears in the literature as Erdőhát uti-barlang (Kraus 1984), Erdőhát-uti-barlang (Gazdag 1990), Erdőhát úti barlang (Tóth, Adamkó 1982), Erdőhát-úti-barlang (Sándor Kraus in the Tábori information brochure), Mátyás-hegyi-dolomitüreg (Kordos 1984), Mátyáshegyi kőfülke (Kordos 1984), Mátyás-hegyi-sziklaüreg (Pápa, Dénes 1982), Mátyás-hegyi sziklaüreg (Pápa 1966) and Mátyás-hegyi üreg. In 1982 the cave was first called Erdőhát úti-barlang in the literature.

Research History

In 1938 Henrik Horusitzky mentioned an as yet unexplored cavity on Mátyás-hegy. According to the description, the eastern slope of Mátyás-hegy consists of upper Carnian floor dolomitic sandstone, in which, on its northern side, small flakes of lower Carnian floor sandstone are embedded. A small, still unexplored cavity is also present in the dolomite. This is probably the first printed description of the cave. According to a study published in the 1957 Geographical Bulletin, for some small Budai cavities it is often impossible to determine precisely whether they are of natural or artificial origin (cavities of Gellért Hill, Sas Hill, Mátyás Hill, Csík Hill).

The book *Budapest természeti képe* published in 1958 states that on one of the maps prepared by Henrik Horusitzky a cave in dolomite is marked. This cave is on the EN side of Mátyás Hill, in the vicinity of the saddle, at an altitude of 280 m. The first excavation in the cavity was carried out by the Cave Exploration Department of the VMTE. The *Budai-hegység* guidebook published in 1966 mentions that descending from the summit of Mátyás Hill, where the tourist path becomes steep and turns into a rock stair, to the left, directly beside the path, is the Mátyás Hill rock cavity.

In the summer of 1981 the cave was noticed by János Papp, a member of the Rózsadomb Kinizsi Cave Exploration and Mountaineering Association, and at that time the cavity entered the association’s field of interest. The exploration was then continued by the association. Before the research conducted by the association only the uppermost chamber was known. The association’s members had to remove a lot of household waste and rubble from the cavity. The exploration was directed by János Papp, György Onjestyák and József Maráczi. In 1982 the Kinizsi Sports Club Cave Exploration Group of the Óbuda Szeszgyár had a research permit for the cave. The guidebook published in 1982 by Miklós Pápa and György Dénes repeats the mention from the 1966 guidebook that saw daylight, but in the 1982 publication the name is Mátyás-hegyi-sziklaüreg.

In 1984, with the help of József Kárpát, the cave's plan map, longitudinal section map and cross‑section maps were made by János Papp, György Onjestyák and József Maráczi. According to their assumption, the cave is connected with the still unknown sections of the Mátyás‑hegy cave. In 1984, Sándor Kraus edited the cave's plan map, longitudinal section map and horizontal section maps. At that time he also examined the rock of the cavity. In the national cave list of the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984, the cave located in the Buda Hills appears under the name Mátyás‑hegy dolomite cavity with the variant name Mátyáshegyi stone cell. Related to the list, the geographic location of the cave is shown on a 1:500 000 scale map depicting the geographic positions of the caves of the Danube‑Uplands.

It was one of the planned sites of the 1987 MKBT research camp. In the 1987 report *Karst and Caves*, a site plan is shown on which the planned locations of the central camp's workplaces can be seen. The site plan marks the location of the Erdőhát‑út cave. According to the report, the cave opens at about 286 m above sea level on a faint tourist trail running along the ridge of Mátyás‑hegy. The old spring‑funnel is more than 15 m deep. During the camp, the cave was opened for 4 days and several cubic metres of fill were brought to the surface using a rope track built from the terminal chamber. Based on Sándor Kraus, speleologically this dome is an older part of the Mátyás‑hegy cave block, of the same or even older age and fill as the Ferenc‑hegy cave and the Nagybánya‑út caves.