Eszterházy Cave

The Eszterházy rock shelter is a cave located in the Gerecse Mountains of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in the outskirts of Tatabánya. It is significant from an archaeological point of view. It is a popular hiking spot beside the busy tourist trail that opens onto the rock shelter.

Description

It is situated in the outskirts of Tatabánya, Bánhidán, on the steep and rocky western side of Kő Hill, about 15 m from the D–DK entrance of the Szelim-hole, at an altitude of about 290 m above sea level, at the same height as the Szelim-hole. It opens on the wide rock ledge of the tourist trail that branches off from the red‑band tourist sign leading from the Tatabánya railway station to Vértestolna, alongside the busy tourist path; the entrance faces north, is spacious, 8 m wide and 2.5 m high, and is located at the foot of a rock wall on a horizontal axis.

One of the oldest known and studied caves in the area. It formed in thick‑bedded Dachstein limestone of the Upper Triassic. The small cave can be visited without permission, in street clothes and without lighting equipment.

In 1976 the cave was mentioned for the first time in the literature under the name Eszterházy rock shelter. In the literature the cave also appears as Bánhidai‑rock shelter (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Esterházy‑rock shelter (Mottl 1935), Esterházy rock shelter (Vigh 1937), Esterházy‑rock cavity (Kadić 1952), Eszterházi cave (T. Dobosi 1997), Eszterházi rock shelter (T. Dobosi 1997), Eszterházy rock shelter (Gaál 1934) and Eszterházy‑rock cavity (Székely 1994).

Research history

In issue 9 of 1934 of Földgömb it is written that around the Szelim-hole, near it, there are smaller and larger underground cavities. The smallest cave closest to the Szelim-hole is only a rock shelter, located about 40–50 steps from the Szelim-hole. Everyone who visits the Szelim-hole certainly notices it. Because it is close to the Szelim-hole and its location is suitable, Gaál István and his colleagues began to investigate this cavity together with the excavation of the Szelim-hole. Because of its owner, its name is Eszterházy rock shelter.

The stone chamber, barely 10 m long and 7 m wide, is probably only the entrance hall of a larger, but deeper situated cave. Indeed, the ceiling does not correspond proportionally to the dimensions of the stone chamber. Along the D wall a 4.5 m section filled with fallen rocks and cave loess suggests a continuation towards D–DK. At the K end there is a narrow corridor 1.5 m long, whose closing rock layer is also not limestone. Because advancing in the indicated directions required blasting and more work, initially only the easily accessible area of 63 m² was undertaken to be excavated.

Under the barely noticeable modern debris, as expected, the upper diluvial cave loess was also found here. But this average 1.5 m thick formation is deposited on the rocky cave floor. In the stone chamber the diluvial layer sequence begins and ends with cave loess. The only excavated and very fine flaked stone tool, a double scraper, is not a particularly characteristic piece that would allow the cultural level to be determined. The animal remains (cave bear, fox and horse) that fell into the sunlight are also not very informative. It can be known that the stone chamber was inhabited at the end of the diluvium. The photograph by Lajos Tóth shown in the publication, on which the entrance of the Eszterházy stone chamber can be seen.

At the board meeting of the Hungarian Speleological Society on 27 November 1934, István Gaál proposed that the small cavity next to the Szelim-hole be named Esterházy stone cell. The board approved the proposal. According to the publication written by János Kokas and published in 1935, there are several caves around the Szelim-hole of various sizes. Closest to the Szelim-hole, in the immediate vicinity, is a 10 × 7 m Esterházy stone cell. This stone‑cell‑type cavity is the antechamber of a larger and deeper‑lying cave. Cave loess consists of a single diluvial layer, from which a nicely flaked stone tool was recovered. The publication shows a black‑and‑white photograph in which the entrance of the Esterházy stone cell can be seen.

In the 1937 issue of Turisták Lapja, in a study written by Gyula Vigh, it is written that István Gaál, in his 1934 study, mentioned a whole series of cavities around the Szelim-hole. The Esterházy stone cell is 40–50 steps from the Szelim-hole. 7 m wide and 1 m long stone cell. A seeming antechamber of a larger cave. Its probable continuation is indicated by a 1.5 m long filled crack at its K‑end. István Gaál excavated a flaked stone tool and Pleistocene mammal remains from here. In the guidebook titled *Vértes Mountains Guide*, published in 1939 and written by Géza Polgárdy, it is mentioned that the Esterházy stone cell is reachable via the tourist trail marked “blue cave”, which runs along the mountain side, is rocky, and offers beautiful views at places. The 1 m long and 7 m wide stone cell is as if it were an antechamber of a larger cave. During its excavation a flaked stone tool and Pleistocene mammal remains were recovered from it. The Szelim-hole is located 40–50 steps from the stone cell.

It was born in 1940, and on page 64 of the travel guide titled *Gerecse and Gete Mountains Guide* the description of the Eszterházy stone cell from page 85 of the 1939 publication is repeated. According to page 12 of the 1940 publication, caves formed in the Dachstein limestone that makes up the structure of the Gerecse Mountains. In limestone mountains the formation of caves is an extremely common phenomenon, because limestone is mostly very fractured rock. Water seeps through the cracks into the rock and there dissolves the limestone material, widens the crack, enlarges it, until finally a cave is created. The caves of the Gerecse Mountains developed in a similar way.