Labyrinth of Buda Castle

The Buda Castle labyrinth, Buda Castle Cave, Turkish cellars, Castle Hill limestone cave, Castle Hill cave, Buda cellar caves, Buda cave cellars are located inside Budapest's Castle Hill. Originally a natural formation, the limestone–marble of the hill and the marl beneath it were dissolved by thermal springs, creating natural voids, to which later the cellars and wells of houses were attached, followed by other extensive expansions. The cave system and the cellar system lie at roughly 12 metres depth and, together with the artificial parts, total 3.3 km in length. The passages open to the public can be visited in groups with a Hungarian- or English-speaking guide after pre‑purchase of tickets on the Danube‑Ipoly National Park website.

Description

Constructed (not necessarily operating) entrances:

Úri utca 9.

Úri utca 51. entrance

Lovas út 4/A.

Lovas út 4/B.

Lovas út 4/C Rock Hospital Atomic Bunker Museum

At the surface parking lot of Lovas út – emergency exit of the protected area under District I Municipality

Dísz tér 1-2.

Glass case standing next to Matthias Church,

Szentháromság utca 2. in the Old City Hall building.

Under Szentháromság utca 13., at the former kiosk, official emergency exit of the Rock Hospital, entry and exit

Cellar at Dárda utca 2., Országház utca 16. (from the pedestrian street) – official nature‑conservation entrance of the Buda Castle cave

Szentháromság tér (from the park, with an added glass lift),

Southern courier corridor in the rampart beneath Hunyadi út,

Northern courier corridor of Fisherman's Bastion.

Prehistory and Middle Ages

The Castle Hill limestone cave was formed in the dawn of geological history by hydrothermal fissuring and leaching. Based on material finds, the cave chambers were already used by the early inhabitants of the area 350 000 years ago.

In the 13th century the cavities were used for water storage and as cellars. Later, for military and economic reasons they were connected with each other and with the castle houses' cellars, so a real labyrinth was created in the belly of Castle Hill.

Cave exploration

During the 1856 works on the Buda City Tunnel water inflows were already detected, which prompted the builders to have the hydrological and morphological properties of Castle Hill examined. Between 1874 and 1896, in connection with the large-scale reconstruction of Matthias Church, several collapses and sinkholes occurred, the investigation of which could not be postponed. Engineer Ignác Schubert of Budapest, on this commission, surveyed the castle hill cellar and cavity system in detail in the 1880s, mapping more than 10 kilometres of cavities that were then still not traversable. In 1897 and 1899 road collapses occurred at the Trinity Square, for which precise geodetic surveys were also made. Using the maps prepared by Tamás Szontágh from Schubert’s 1885 surveys, a study on the dewatering works of the City Tunnel was produced in 1908.

Systematic exploration of the cave system took place in the 1930s under the direction of cave explorer Ottó Kadić, after it was raised that there were not only artificial cavities but also a natural cave system in the hill.

Modern utilization of the cave and cellar system

In 1935 a part of the cavities was opened to visitors, and in the following years they hosted exhibitions presenting the bones found within them.

It was built with forced labor from 1939, and in February 1944 the Capital City Surgical Emergency Hospital opened. The facility was designed to accommodate 300 people. However, during the siege of Budapest it became completely filled with the wounded, and according to eyewitness accounts 650–700 people were also crammed in. Furthermore, those who could not get into the hospital were placed in cave chambers through several passages that opened into a system converted into a nursery in 1942, lying on stretchers and straw sacks. German soldiers were also cared for here, but most of them went to their own cave section.

Until 1949 a protective vaccine against typhus was produced here for Yugoslav export. In the early 1950s the facility was classified, receiving the secret code LOSK 0101/1 in addition to the strictly secret rating (the classification was only lifted in 2002). Due to Cold War tension a decision was made to expand the hospital, so in 1952 a new ward was created and the outfitting of the facility began, with reinforcement by reinforced‑concrete structures.

On 25 October 1956 the still unfinished hospital opened and treated wounded civilians and soldiers. After the suppression of the revolution it briefly operated as a prison hospital.

Between 1958 and 1962 it was rebuilt and expanded to be usable in case of chemical or nuclear attack. At that time the health‑care bypass, air and water treatment system was built. A direct water pipe and pumping system to the Danube, a combat‑gas filter system and an energy supply system were installed. It was characteristic of the hospital’s standard that it was also equipped with air‑conditioning. However, because of military‑technical development the facility became obsolete by the late 1960s.

In 1961 it became accessible again as a cave museum, and in 1965 the Úri Street entrance was also opened. During this period the museum displayed objects found at the medieval kings' fortresses.

From the 1980s to the present

In 1984 a panopticon opened, and from 1997 the castle cave, covering four thousand four hundred square metres, also hosted exhibitions and intellectual workshops. In literary, philosophical, visual arts, film and music programmes the labyrinth theme acquired a decisive role.

In 1986 the episode titled Panoptikum of the television series Linda was filmed here.

On 1 March 1989 passages collapsed and sank in several places. As a result the routes of buses 16 and 116, which had been traveling on the streets above the cave, were shortened, and instead of Ikarus 260 buses, until 1994 the smaller axle‑load Ikarus 521 models were deployed on the Várbusz line running between Moszkva Square and the Buda Castle funicular.