Harcsaszájú Cave

Harcsaszájú Cave was an independent cave, but is currently part of the Pál Cave system. It is located in the Budai Mountains within the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in District II of Budapest.

Description

In District II of Budapest, next to Szépvölgyi Road, in the formerly cultivated, reclaimed, park‑styled (under Szépvölgyi Road number 162) upper exploitation level of the Pál‑völgy quarry, at the DNy corner, the cave has a spectacular entrance measuring 5×6 m. The entrance of Harcsaszájú Cave opens above the entrance of Bagyura Cave, which is on the lower excavation level of the quarry. A parking lot has been created next to the quarry. Buses number 65 and 65A from the Kolosy area stop at the quarry.

It was the second longest cave of the Pál‑völgy quarry. It was the longest cave of the Bagyura–Harcsaszájú–Kishideglyuk cave system. The horizontal extent of Harcsaszájú Cave is 112 m. Tectonically and genetically it is also connected with the Kis Hideg‑lyuk and the Bagyura Cave. The cave’s host rock, like the other caves of the area, is mainly Upper Eocene shallow‑marine limestone (Szépvölgyi Limestone Formation), in which large foraminifera (Nummulites, Discocyclina) often occur in rock‑forming quantities as characteristic limestone frameworks. Essentially, it was formed along a huge fault line and consists of closely connected parallel passages and the smaller side passages, niches and chambers associated with them. Its main fault direction is 115°–295°.

The cave continues after the entrance in a room that descends stepwise downward. At the end of the room the prominent tectonic fissure, along which the room was formed, can be observed. At the deepest point of the room there is an iron door, under which the cave continues. From the cave’s largest corridor, the characteristic Pannonia corridor, which is 30 m long and 3–4 m wide, one can descend from a height of 8 m, where an old ladder fragment assists the descent. From the DK end of the Pannonia corridor opened a narrow, bar-shaped passage that led to the Bagyura cave, but this passage has collapsed by now.

After the corridor towards ÉNy a longer, broken section begins, divided into levels by blocks of debris. Traversing over the Gödör, one can climb down through the 5 m deep and slippery Cseppköves funnel. After a short hideaway one can reach the next larger fissure chamber, also segmented by debris blocks into several levels. At the main end of the chamber sharp-edged, hanging stone blocks can be seen. These gave the Guillotine chamber its name. Here is the deepest point of the cave, at 44 m depth. The opposite end of the main fissure is formed by a multi‑level, branching and narrowing fissure (Malacfürdő).

Climbing 5 m up the Guillotine shaft and turning right through a narrow passage leads to the large, 4×12 m, unstable Great Hall located in a side niche. The entire cave contains stalactite draperies, stalactite poisonings and small pendant stalactites. At the end of the Pannonia corridor the cave’s largest flowstone can be observed. Helictites also occur sporadically. Mostly on the sloping pit leading to the Pannonia corridor, at the end of the corridor and around the Stalactite Horn one can find barrel stalactites. Stalactite crusts mar the walls in many places in the interior of the cave. The Harcsaszájú Cave runs parallel to the Vetkőztető formation in the Pál Valley Cave. By extracting the many clays at the cave’s endpoint one could learn about the lower zone of the French Mine caves.

In 1919 the cave was first called Harcsaszájú Cave in the literature. The cave appears in the literature under the names Déri Cave (Borbás 1934), Déry Cave (Kadić 1920), Déry cave (Láng 1957), Guggerhegyi Cave (Pápa 1957), Guggerhegyi cave (Láng 1957), Harcsa Cave (Kadić 1919), Harcsa cave (Láng 1957), Harcsaszáju Cave (Palánkai 1964), Harcsaszáju cave (Láng 1957), Harcsaszájú cave (Barcza, Thirring 1920), Harcsaszájúcave (Földváry 1935), Harcsaszájú Cave (Kordos 1977), Harcsaszájú and Bagyura Cave (Kordos 1984), Quarry Cave (Kordos 1984), Látó Hill Cave (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Látóhegy Cave (Borbás 1934), Látóhegy cave (Barcza, Thirring 1920), Old Cave (Kadić 1920), Old cave (Láng 1957) and Fox Cave (Kordos 1984).

1913–1938

In the 1913 issue of Turisták Lapja it is written that the Pál Valley quarry is younger than 30 years. József Déry was the first, on 27 April 1902, while walking with József Pfinn on Szépvölgyi Road, to infer the existence of a cave from the stick‑shaped dripstones planted in the ground in a small garden in front of the mine‑yard house and used for growing flowers; the guard immediately showed interest, and then, led by the guard and using the light of candles tied to poles, descended into a huge, funnel‑shaped entrance cave opening in the north‑east corner of the mine, and, enchanted by the beauty of the stalactite curtains seen in the cave, drew the attention of tourists to the cave; a few days later (11 May 1902) he showed the cave to Karoly Jordan, who was interested in the cave. At that time in the Pál Valley quarry the entrance of Jordan Cave, the previously mentioned and named by Imre Gábor Bekey as Déry Cave, and the entrance of Bagyura Cave, which lies in the same fracture plane as Déry Cave but much lower, were known. The systematic examination of the three caves began primarily under the leadership of Karoly Jordan.