Hajnóczy Cave

Hajnóczy Cave is one of the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Bükki National Park. It is the third longest in the Bükk region, the 13th longest in Hungary, and the longest cave of the Southern Bükke. It is one of the oldest caves in the Bükk region, with fauna-dated age. It is the fifth highest cave in the country. It is one of the most diversely explored and studied caves in the country.

Description

In the Southern Bükke of the Bükk region, near the Odorvár, there is a narrow entrance one metre high and half a metre wide in a specially protected nature reserve, which many tourist maps show. The cave entrance is located 140 metres from the summit of the Odor-vár, to the southwest, on the southern, steep side of the hill, at the foot of the rock walls, in a forest. In front of the entrance there is a lower, small area. The entrance opens on a sandstone wall, but the cave passages extend to the Bükkzsérc. Near the Hajnóczy Cave is the Odorvári Cave. After the entrance, a metal gate that closes the further parts of the cave was installed.

Triassic Ladinian-Carboniferous firestone and firestone-free, gray limestone formed along tectonic fault lines. The branching cave passages are located on several levels. In the cave, from the point of view of formation, two parts can be distinguished. One part is a cave section with a layer‑sheet dissolution, later formed by corrosion processes, most winding, narrow and containing many tight passages, and a mainly erosional part that includes the cave’s largest chambers. The rubble piles and debris hinder the passage between the large chambers. In the Latinka Sándor trumpet the prepared firestone gums can be well observed. The cave contains many calcite crystals and variously developed speleothems, such as cave pearls, as well as helicites of varied shape and size, stalactites of different colours, flowstones, dripstone draperies and large‑size stalagmite flows. The richest part in speleothems is the Gallery. In the Gallery, the speleothems 180–310 centimetres high and 6–15 centimetres in diameter are special in that their vertical longitudinal sections form an irregular, zigzag band and are not rectangular.

The deepest point of the cave is in the section called Stromfi, its highest point is in the Szabó András Hall. Its narrowest passage is the Satu. The Great Hall is 48 metres long, 14 metres wide and 6–10 metres high, the Giant Hall is 62 metres long, 16 metres wide and 14 metres high, the Tsitsogó is 87 metres long, 26 metres wide and 3.8 metres high. The Grand Canyon, with a winding, partly brecciated, steep-walled passage, is 42 metres long, 1.5–7.5 metres wide and in some places 13–15 metres high. In the winding passage of the Kürtőskalács there are erosional potholes. On the lower level of the cave water sometimes drips down. According to the analysis of the Department of Chemistry of the Eger Teacher Training College, the dark coating material on the walls of the Lower Smoky Hall and the Upper Smoky Hall is calcium‑sulphate‑vaskarbonate. In the Rekettyés, at a level about 1.8–2.3 metres high, the highest carbon‑dioxide concentration is 1.2–1.8 percent by volume. This is interesting because the greatest carbon‑dioxide volume percentage is not at the bottom of the hall.

Among the bats occurring in the cave, the greater mouse‑eared bat, the round‑nosed mouse‑eared bat, the pond bat, the short‑eared bat and the big‑eared bat are specially protected bat species. They can be observed only with the permission of the Bükki National Park Directorate and a research group. Technical equipment must be used for the visit. Viewing is made easier by ladders placed in the passages.

In 1974 Hír János found remains of Ursus deningeri, which was the ancestor of the cave bear, in the cave. Afterwards, during the paleontological investigation led by Kordos László, many primitive rodent remains were extracted from it. In the paleontological research, Mimomys savini, which is an important chronostratigraphic vole species, Allocricetus ehiki, which is an extinct small hamster, and Glis sackdillingensis, also called the ancient dwarf hamster, were also found. The Mimomys pusillus vole species was first discovered here in the Bükk region. Until now, such old, 700 000‑year‑old cave deposits have been found in the Bükk region at only three sites.

This was the first cave in Hungary in which radon research was carried out. It is the third longest cave in the Bükk region after the István-lápai Cave and the Bolhási–Jávorkúti cave system. It is the fifth highest cave in the country behind the Saint Stephen Cave, the Ariadne cave system, the Rákóczi No. 4 cave and the Vass Imre Cave. The Vass Imre Cave is 10 centimetres higher than the Hajnóczy Cave.

The cave was named after József Hajnóczy, who explored and studied the cave and was also the namer of the Hajnóczy József Cave Research Group. The group took its name directly from the Hajnóczy József Gymnasium in Tiszaföldvár. The part of the cave called Böhm‑kürtő was named after Vilmos Böhm, the Latinka Sándor‑kürtő after Sándor Latinka, the Somogyi‑room at the cave entrance after György Somogyi, who died while exiting the cave, for whose honor a memorial plaque was placed in the Great Hall, the Stromfi part after Aurél Stromfeld, the Szabó András‑room after András Szabó, who was a Hungarian‑English specialist teacher at the Hajnóczy József Gymnasium and died in the year the room was discovered.

The Tsitsogó is named after the sticky ash covering its bottom, the Lower Smoky Hall and the Upper Smoky Hall after the black coating visible on the walls, the Orgona Hall after its droplet‑dripping area that produces beautiful resonant sounds, the Hufi well after Pisti Hufnágel, who was a character of the Mézga family, the Balás Anna cinerary after Balás Anna. Balás Anna died at the age of 26 and was a member of the József Hajnóczy Speleology Group. The Ariadne shaft was discovered and named by the Ariadne Karst and Speleology Association. The Jubilee branch received its name on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the cave’s exploration.