Hermit caves of Szentkút

The Szentkút hermit caves are artificial cavities located in the Cserhát Mountains within the operational area of the Bükki National Park Directorate, next to Szentkút, which belongs to Mátraverebély.

Description

At the northern border of Mátraverebély, at the foot of the Meszes peak (421 m), there is a separate settlement area, Szentkút, which has become a pilgrimage site because of its supposedly miraculous spring. On the southern side of the Meszes peak lies the artificially created cavity group now called the Szentkút hermit caves, but previously these also formed a smaller monastery, a so‑called cönobium. One must cross the bridge behind the Szentkút Great Blessed Virgin Mary Church, then follow the well‑trodden path on the northern side of the Meszes peak to reach the cavities overlooking the Szentkút valley.

According to geomorphological investigations, it is very likely that there was also a natural cave on this part of the mountainside. In the rock break consisting of marly, clayey sandstone, the wind has carved smaller and larger deflation hollows between layers of differing cohesion. The formation of these elongated wind‑eroded hollows was most suitable precisely at the present location of the hermit caves. The presumably existing larger rock openings were expanded and reshaped to suit cultic purposes. The beginning of the creation of the cavities also fades into the distant past.

The ensemble of the Szentkút hermit caves currently consists of seven chambers. From west to east: the Workshop, the Stable, the Kitchen and Central Chapel opening from the common vestibule, the Vezeklő (formerly perhaps Ikonosztáz), the Tension Chapel and the Living Cave with the toilet. The first two chambers are modest, windowless cells, the others are rooms carved with high technical skill and refined aesthetic sense. Unfortunately the graffiti of uncultured visitors cover almost every wall surface from the altar tension to the toilet seat. In 1996 this historically significant place was partially renovated.

The three medieval cave monasteries located in Hungary (the Szentkút hermit caves, the Nagymaros hermit caves, the Monastic Dwellings in Tihany) resemble each other in location, form and history. All three are on steep, easily carveable rock mountain sides. The chambers are arranged in a line (with a slight deviation at the Nagymaros hermit caves). The number of chambers is relatively few, varying between 7 and 10, and even in their heyday could not exceed twice these numbers. Therefore they are small monasteries, colonies under the supervision of a nearby larger monastery, in Latin coenobiums, in the terminology of the Eastern churches laurák. Apart from one or two chapels, communal rooms (refectories), ikonosztázes, living cells and storages belonged to the created or adapted cavity system.

Their short history began after the strengthening of Christianity in this region. First the monks of the Eastern Church basilica organized and equipped the cavities for ecclesiastical purposes. Then after the 1056 church schism the Benedictines took over these monasteries, but until the Tatar invasion monks preaching both Eastern and Western doctrines were active here together. After the Tatar invasion the Tihany and Nagymaros cave monasteries were under Benedictine, the Szentkút Cistercian supervision, but they gradually withdrew from the cave monasteries because the Roman Church leadership looked less favorably on hermitage. The organized ecclesiastical life of the cave monasteries lasted roughly until the 14th–15th centuries. Afterwards there were still a few monks who voluntarily took up the hermit life among the remnants of the once brighter cave monasteries. In this respect Szentkút was a certain exception, where in 1190 the Cistercians took over from the Benedictines the spiritual care of the area, the supervision of the hermit caves and they were able to establish mutual cooperation with the hermit dwellers of the caves, which was then continued by the Franciscans who have been here for 200 years. Thanks to this, of the three cave monasteries Szentkút remained the best preserved.

In 1989 the cavities were first called Szentkúti-remetebarlangok in the literature. In the literature the cavities appear under the names Béla-cave (Bertalan 1976), Remete-cave (Szathmári 1982), Remete-caves (Szathmári 1982), Remitelakások (Eszterhás 1988), Szentkuti-remetebarlangok (Kordos 1984), Szentkuti-remetelakások (Eszterhás 1988), Szentkúti remetebarlangok (Bertalan 1976) and Szentkúti Remetelakások (Eszterhás 1989).

Research History

In the 1970 issue of Turista, in Viktor Szombathy’s publication, it is mentioned that during Szombathy Viktor’s tour they touched the stone cells used by hermits at Szentkút. The tourists sunbathed in front of the stone cells. The question arose among them what was the name of that very diligent white lady who carved a cell, a niche, an altar, a door, a window into the desiccated lime mortar. The hikers sat on the wide, bushy, tree‑covered terrace of the cell, opposite Ágasvár. In the description there is a black‑and‑white photograph that records the hermit dwellings of Mátraverebély. The photograph was taken by Viktor Szombathy. In the manuscript written by Károly Bertalan, completed in 1976, it reads that the Szentkúti hermit caves (Béla-cave) are located at Mátraverebély, on the Meszes‑peak in the Cserhát Mountains. From Szentkút eastward, on the D side of Meszes‑peak, from the Szentkút shrine east‑northeast, they are situated 400 m away, at an altitude of 312 m above sea level. The three stone cells were artificially excavated, each 4 m high. They were inhabited until the early 20th century. The part of the manuscript describing the cavities was written based on two publications.