Jankovich Cave

Jankovich Cave is one of the caves in Hungary that are specially protected. It is located in the Gerecse Landscape Protection Area in the Danube–Ipoly National Park. It is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Transdanubia and the namesake of the Jankovician culture. It is one of the six caves in the Gerecse Mountains that are specially protected. It is situated at a popular hiking spot. A tourist trail leads to its entrance.

Description

From the rest area under Old Stone, which is touched by the National Blue Trail, one can reach the cave on a tourist path marked with a blue Ω, i.e., blue cave sign. Old Stone is rocky and steep, and on its K side, divided by rock slabs, is the spectacular main entrance, which is located near the large rock cleft. This entrance, facing east, is 9.5 m wide and 8 m high, irregularly curved, and is considered large by Hungarian standards. The entrance opens directly into a hall 25 m long, 10–12 m wide at the front and gradually narrowing to 5 m inward.

The lower entrance, opening 4 m below the main entrance, has a flat‑curved ceiling, is 4 m wide and 1.5 m high. It leads to a room 12 m long, 6–10 m wide and 1–2 m high, initially steeply sloping, then slightly rising inward. This lower passage is located beneath the entrance hall. At the end of the room a small dome can be seen, which is completely filled with stacked stone blocks. Before the collapse, this dome provided a passage between the lower and upper parts of the cave.

From the ceiling of the 8–15 m high entrance hall a dome leading to a 7.5 m diameter surface in the middle, and from its rear part two 2–3 m diameter and 12–14 m high blind domes open close to each other. At the end of the hall, which has been enlarged by a series of excavations, the previously almost horizontal floor is replaced by a short and steep limestone slope. Inside this hall a room of 6–8 m diameter and almost 10 m height is attached, which can be reached by walking down the steep limestone slope. This inner room is the endpoint of the cave’s upper passage.

The cave’s upper Triassic, thick-bedded Dachstein limestone formed along the ENE–WSW fault line (by its nature and mineral wealth) as a result of dissolution below the karst water level, due to thermal karst action. The cave is currently hydrologically inactive. On its formation‑free walls, in the upper third of the fissure and in the inner room, beautiful spherical‑chamber dissolution forms can be observed. No permission is required to visit the unsealed cave, but the use of a light source is recommended.

In the early 1900s, after long‑term excavations here, artifacts from several Paleolithic cultures were recovered from the older sediment layers, and Neolithic and Bronze Age finds from the upper, humus‑rich layers. Because of its archaeological and paleontological significance, as well as its morphological and landscape value, the cave is specially protected.

The Hungarian Speleology and Nature Conservation Association conducted bat observations in the Jankovich Cave, during which the members identified six bat species: lesser mouse-eared bat, greater horseshoe bat, greater mouse-eared bat, common pipistrelle, grey long-eared bat and western barbastelle. In front of the cave entrance the Budapest Bat Protection Group captured greater horseshoe bat, greater mouse-eared bat, brown long-eared bat, grey long-eared bat, common pipistrelle, common noctule, water bat and long-fingered bat with nets. Based on the cave, the observation data and the occasionally found fresh droppings, it can be considered locally a medium-species-number, low-individual-number, occasional winter and summer bat roost.

The name of the cave

The cave was named after Béla Jankovich (Jankovich-barlang) (Hillebrand 1914). The cave received this name on the occasion of Béla Jankovich’s joint cave visit with Lóczy Lajos. The cave appears in literature as Baits Cave (Bertalan 1976), Baits György Cave (Vigh 1937), Bajót Cave (Tompa 1935), Bajót No. 1 Cave (Kordos 1984), Bajót I. No. 1 Cave (Juhász 2003), Bajót I.No.1 Cave (Bertalan 1976), Bajót No. 1 Cave (Székely 1994), Bajót Old Stone Cave (Bertalan 1976), Bajót‑Old‑Stone‑Cave (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Bajót Old Stone Cave (Székely 1994), Jankovich Cave (Bittera 1916), Jankovich Cave (Jánossy 1977), Jankovics Cave (Gábori 1977), Jankovics Cave (Jaskó 1957), Jankovits Cave (Sásdi 2003), Old Stone Cave (Lambrecht 1913), Old Stone Cave (Bekey 1913), Old Stone Cave (Bekey 1913) and Szalai Cave.

1877–1913

The issue of Vasárnapi Újság dated July 29 1877 reports that there is a cave on the border of Bajót in Esztergom County.

According to the book describing Esztergom county published in 1908, traces of cave dwellers were not found in Esztergom county, because there are no caves that contain evidence that ancient humans once lived in them. The first settlers came to this region with more advanced needs, and besides tools made of animal bones and antler, they also used stone tools. Therefore they were not forced to live in caves or dug-out hollows, but could make tents and huts. The caves or dug-out hollows that are still numerous in forests or in remote, hard-to-reach areas and contain traces of human culture could not have been ancient human dwellings. They were mainly hideouts from the time of the Tatar invasion and Turkish destruction, because the objects found in them cannot be traced back to prehistoric times.