Kis Loggia Cave

The Kis Loggia Cave is one of those andesite caves that is located in the Visegrád Mountains of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in the Esztergom area.

Description

It is located at the border of Esztergom, on the eastern side of the Látó Hill ridge called Csurgó-berek. From the Barát-kút forest ranger station, follow the yellow-marked tourist trail northwest for about 600 metres. Here a forestry path joins from the left, a few metres further, about 50 metres left of the trail, smaller hills can be seen in the forest. Behind these hides a rock formation without cliffs, located in the closed forest about 80 metres west of the trail, 20–25 metres wide and 6–8 metres high. It is noticeable that the rock does not rise out of the slope plane. At first glance it looks like an abandoned quarry, although there are no other traces indicating this. No road or path leads to it, and it is not easily seen from the tourist trail in leafy season – therefore it is difficult to find.

The upper part of the rock hiding the cavity is agglomerate, and the lower part is thick-bedded andesite tuff. In the tuff a rock cavity 8.05 metres wide and 2.65 metres deep formed. Since it does not stand out from its surroundings, it is at the bottom of a small sinkhole, and its genesis is not really understood. No trace indicates a possible artificial origin. Nevertheless it is regular, angular, almost bounded by planes, which is why it received the name loggia.

From the south, the edge of the sinkhole is filled with humus debris up to about the middle. On the other parts the floor is covered with stone debris, ash and rotten wood branches. No mineral formations are found in it.

The cave also occurs in literature under the name Loggia Cave (Eszterhás, Szabó, Szilvay, Tinn 1996).

Research history

In 1971 László Zolnay and Edit Lettrich wrote about a Loggia Cave, but it is difficult to decide whether this is the Kis Loggia Cave or the Loggia Cave. Peter Szilvay described and mapped the cavity in detail under the name Loggia Cave in 1996. In the National Cave Register it is listed as Kis Loggia Cave, thus this is its official name.

A smaller sinkhole at Loggia Cave has already been confused by several people with the Loggia Cave located near the mountain peak.

The study published in the 2014 Karst Development states that the Small Loggia Cave in Esztergom has a floor area of 2.6×8 m and a height of 2.5 m. The cave is one of the 101 caves of the Visegrád Mountains.