Odvas-kői Cave

Odvas-kői Cave is one of the caves in Hungary that are highly protected. It is located in Bakonyszücső in the Bakony Mountains. Archaeological finds have been recovered from it. The cave also appears in tourist guidebooks.

Description

One of the popular tourist attractions of the Bakony. The cave is very well known because of its location. Following the red‑band tourist sign that starts from the Gerence valley and leads to the Vajda Péter lookout on Kőris Hill, a trail leads to the cave. The other possibility is the red‑cave sign (Ω) at the bottom of the Szarvad gorge, a direct road to the cave, but its last few hundred metres are very steep. Both routes are part of the Boroszlán nature trail that presents the natural values of the High Bakony Protected Landscape Area.

The cave has a large entrance 3.5 m high and 7 m wide, opening under the Odvas‑kő rock. It is freely accessible. The once‑closed cavity was formed in Triassic dolomite by mixing corrosion. The interior chamber is used by dormice as a winter shelter.

In 1976 the cave was first called Odvas‑kői Cave in the literature. The cave also appears in the literature under the names Bakonybéli‑zsiványbarlang (Kordos 1984), Bakonybéli zsiványbarlang (Bertalan 1976), Bakonybél‑zsiványbarlang (Futó 2003), Betyárbarlang (Gál 1935), Betyár‑barlang (Pápa 1943), Betyár barlang (Darnay‑Dornyay 1957), Gerence‑barlang (Bertalan 1938), Gerence barlang (Darnay‑Dornyay 1957), Gerencebarlang (Kordos 1984), Odvaskő (Gál 1935), Odvaskő‑barlang (Dudich 1932), Odvaskő barlang (Bertalan 1938), Odvas‑kő‑barlang (Eszterhás 1984), Odvaskőbarlang (Dornyay 1955), Odvaskői‑barlang (Kadić 1939), Odvaskői barlang (Kadić 1941) and Odvas‑kői rock cavity (Eszterhás 1984).

Research History

A long‑known cave. In a donation deed issued in 1037 by King Stephen I of Hungary the name Oduaskw is mentioned, which is the earliest written document referring to the cave as a geographical name in Hungary. In 1914 Dezső Laczkó carried out an excavation in the cave. He abandoned the excavation. This first excavation uncovered some pottery fragments, bone shards and traces of fire. An unsuccessful trial excavation was carried out here in 1916 by Jenő Hillebrand. In 1926 Ottokár Kadić and E. Hatzky examined the cave and found a bear tooth in it. In the book published in 1932, *The Aggtelek Stalactite Cave and Its Surroundings*, in the section about the caves of the Bakony Mountains, it is mentioned that the Odvaskő Cave is located in the Gerence gorge valley. The description was written based on one literary work.

In the 1935 volume of Turisták Lapja, a publication written by László Gál, it is stated that on one mountainside of the Odvas-kő valley there is a cave in which prehistoric man could find protection against the weather's hardships. The cave is more recently mentioned under the name Betyárcave, but Odvaskő is its true name. This is how the people call it and it is also mentioned under this name in the founding charter of King Stephen I of Hungary from 1037. Odvaskő was one of the boundary points of the estates of the Bakony monastery founded at that time. The cave was difficult to find even a few years before the publication was written, because it is not at the foot of the mountain nor near the mountain ridge, but on a mountainside, about two‑thirds up, and its entrance is hidden by a protrusion in front of it. Recently it can be reached on a well‑visible trail to its entrance. The cave’s ceiling is a huge rock covered with stone roses and ferns, from which the view to the horizon is beautiful over the all‑encompassing, vast forest. Tourists should visit the cave, because they will have an unforgettable experience.

According to the book published in 1937 and written by Gyula Szeghalmy, the finds from the Odvas‑kő cave confirm that the cave was inhabited by cave ancestors in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. About an hour’s travel from Bakonybél, the Odvas‑kő rises above the beautiful gorge of the Gerence stream, and its entrance darkens, recessed into its dolomite wall, similar to the similarly named cave. If the Odvas‑kő, Csesznek, Bakonyszentlászló, Koloska‑völgy, and Dudár caves were scientifically explored, they would probably also contain traces of people of the Moustérien culture, the Solutrean culture and the Magdalénian culture.

According to the paper published in the 1939 *Barlangvilág* and written by Ottokár Kadić, the caves of the Danube‑Tisza region, such as the Szeleta Cave, Balla Cave, Herman Ottó Cave, Kecske‑lyuk, Három‑kúti Cave, Istállós‑kői Cave, Büdös‑pest and Puskaporosi‑kőfülke, are of similar significance to the caves in the Bükk Mountains, for example the Odvas‑kői Cave located in the Bakony Mountains. In 1940 it was one of the research targets of Károly Bertalan. The excavation carried out by Mária Mottl in the cave in July 1941 resulted in the discovery of a few Ice Age mammoth tusks. The *Országjárás* yearbook of 1942 mentioned that the Odvas‑kői Cave is located near Kőris‑hegy. It is the largest cave in the Bakony Mountains, cut into dolomite, a very spacious and high cavity. Not far from the Odvas‑kői Cave are the Kőris‑hegyi‑ördöglik.

In 1951 Miklós Gábori conducted a trial excavation in the Odvas‑kői Cave. Since 1951 it has been under archaeological protection. In the book *Bakony útikalauz* published in 1955, the Odvas‑kői Cave is described in detail and its geographical location is shown on the map in the book. In 1976 the cave named Odvas‑kő, located in the 4400 (Bakony) cave cadastral area in Bakonyszücs, became a cave of national significance. In the *Magyar barlangtani bibliográfia* cave name index compiled by Károly Bertalan and László Schőnviszky and published in 1976, the cave in Bakony is listed under the name Odvas‑kői Cave. The name index lists 17 literary works dealing with the cave. After the clarification of cave names in the list of caves of national significance compiled in 1976, the cave named Odvas‑kői Cave, located in Bakonyszücs in the Bakony Mountains, appears on the list of caves of national significance compiled on May 30, 1977.