János Cave

The Solymári stone cave is one of the caves located on Solymár in the Danube–Ipoly National Park, on Zsíros Hill. Paleontological and archaeological finds have been recovered from it.

Description

Near the Solymári Devil's Hole, under its main entrance, in the forest, on the side of a no longer operating large stone quarry, there is an oval-shaped, horizontally oriented, natural entrance 9 m wide and 2.5 m high. It is advisable to approach from the quarry yard. It opens at the intersection of the quarry and the valley that joins it from the Danube direction, at the valley’s gorge-like break.

It consists of a single wide, horizontally extending but low chamber, which is relatively dry and almost horizontal. Its clayey floor rises slightly inward in steps. It formed in Upper Triassic Dachstein limestone, which is heavily brecciated and fragmented. It extends 12 m horizontally. According to Sándor Leél-Őssy, it is probably a karstic former spring cave. Its entrance has collapsed. It is currently deteriorating, hydrologically inactive. Its formations include stalactite encrustations, dripstone sheets and mountain milk. The responsible nature protection authority is the Danube–Ipoly National Park. According to Ottokár Kadić, morphologically it is not a stone cave but a rock cavity. Near it is an open, but destroyed, Solymári rock cavity similar to it, but smaller in size.

The cave occurs in the literature as Bockloch (Tasnádi Kubacska 1928), which is Kecske-lyuk in Hungarian, Csucshegyi rock cavity (Kadić 1952), János-cave (Láng 1958), János cave (Horváth 1967), János-hole (Bertalan 1976), Jánoshole-cave (Leél-Őssy 1957), Kecskeistálló cave (Tasnádi Kubacska 1928), Kecskelyuk (Tasnádi Kubacska 1926), Kecske-lyuk (Bertalan 1976), Kecskeól (Bekey 1913), Solymári-quarry spring vents (Kordos 1984), but it is not certain that this cave belongs among them, also under the names Solymári stone cell (Tasnádi Kubacska 1928) and Solymári rock cell (Tasnádi Kubacska 1928). In 1984 the cave was mentioned for the first time in the literature as Solymári stone cell.

Finds

During the excavations of Károly Budinszky many mammal bones and bird bones were recovered, for example cave bear, cat, deer, field rabbit. At that time metal objects, potsherds and hearth remains, burnt bone, ash and charcoal were also found.

Research history

Károly Budinszky excavated in the stone cell in the years 1905–1906, searching for prehistoric finds. He mapped and photographed the cave. He dug out the fill covering the cave floor square meter by square meter and made precise notes of his examinations. The finds that emerged during his excavations, which he sent to the Institute of Geology, were not fully processed because of his death in 1916. He attached label tags and notes to the finds. His first mention in print occurred in 1913. According to the description, the two caves of Solymári, paleontologically and touristically very interesting, the Devil's Hole and the Kecskeól, would soon be destroyed by stone mining if the research continued to be delayed.

The cave was mentioned by Tasnádi Kubacska András in 1926 in one of his lectures, and then in his article about the Solymári rock cavity based on that. In 1928, he described the cave in detail. Tasnádi Kubacska András and Gedeon Tihamér explored the cavity in 1927. The two measured the stone chamber, and then Tasnádi Kubacska András, using the survey data, drew the cave floor plan map, which includes the locations of Budinszky Károly's trial caves, and its cross‑section map. In 1928 the cave floor plan map and a photograph of the cave entrance were published. The cave entrance is 2 m high and about 2.2 m wide. The cave’s greatest interior height is 3.5 m, its length 18.5 m, and its width 8.5 m. Tasnádi Kubacska András urged further excavation of the cavity, because the quarry was getting closer to the cavity.

In the 1937 issue of Turisták Lapja, in a report written by Jellinek János, it is mentioned that Jellinek János works with his companions in the Solymári Devil’s Hole and in the unnamed cavity nearby. In the 1937 issue of Barlangvilág, in a report written by Kadić Ottokár, it is stated that in 1936 researchers found wolf and cave bear bones, as well as a woolly rhinoceros femur, in the Solymári Devil’s Hole. These remains prove that the Ice Age mammals that once emerged from the Solymári rock cavities are also found in the Solymári Devil’s Hole.

In the manuscript written by Kadić Ottokár in 1952, the previous research on the Solymári stone niche was summarized. In the manuscript the name is Csucshegyi cave. In the study written by Leél-Őssy Sándor, published in the 1957 issue of Geographical Bulletin, the Solymári stone niche (Jánoslyuk cave) is described. Therefore it can be confused with the Solymári water collector, which has another name Jánoslyuka. The publication states that the Solymári stone niche formed in Dachstein limestone, is located next to the Solymári Devil’s Hole, is horizontal, small and dry. It is probably a karstic old spring cave, whose entrance has collapsed. It consists of a cave chamber about 8 m long. It is already deteriorating, heavily filled with cave clay and contains no stalactites. The map sketch attached to the study shows the geographical location of the Solymári stone niche.

According to the book titled *Budapest Natural Pictures* published in 1958, the Kecskelyuk, which may also be called János cave, is on the east side of Mount Csúcs, at the bottom of a large water erosion located downstream from the Solymári Devil’s Hole, near the large stone quarry, at an elevation of 275 m above sea level, emerging 20–25 m above the foot of the mountain. Large cave chamber. Its cavity is about 10 m long, about 10 m wide and 1–3 m high. Its floor rises inward due to the thick reddish‑brown clay fill. It probably formed when a tectonic fissure opened widely, or it was a spring cave formed at the junction of several fissures. It is currently largely filled with glacial loam, which has not yet been excavated.