Pákozdvár Cave

Pákozdvár Cave is one of those artificial cavities located in the Velence Hills. Archaeological finds have been recovered from the cavity. It is not a cave, but it has been described several times as the only cave in the Velence Hills.

Description

Approximately two kilometres from Sukoró lies Meleg Hill, on which Pákozdvár was built. It is located on the outer side of the southeastern slope of the fortress ruin, near the red trail and the tourist path marked with a red square that branches off from it. It is in loess, lies horizontally and was probably fashioned by hand as a shelter. It is very fragile because it is in loess and contains collapses, so the only possible entry by crawling is dangerous. The dark cavity is not a tourist attraction.

The cavity occurs in literature under the names Barcaházi-cave (Kocsis 1970), Báracházi-cave (Holényi 1969), Báracházi cave (Czeglényi 1951), Bárcaháza-cave (Holényi 1958), Bárcaháza cave (Horváth 1972), Bárcaházi-cave (Kordos 1984), Bárcaházi cave (Horn 1931), Pákozd-vári Báracházi-cave (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Pákozdvári-földodu (Eszterhás 1994), Pákozdvári-földodú (Szenti, Eszterhás 2001), Pákozdvári földodú (Bertalan 1976) and Pákózdvári földodú (Kordos 1984). One of the names of Csákvári-cave is Báracházi-cave, therefore the Báracházi-cave of Pákozd was named Pákozdvári-cave. The mixing of the names was caused by a notice published in 1926.

Research history

In 1925 the first printed news about the existence of the cavity saw daylight. The notice was written by Arnold Marosi. At the board meeting of the Székesfehérvár Branch of the Hungarian Tourist Association on 29 April 1925, the managing vice‑president reported on the exploration of underground passages located at the entrance of the Nympha Valley under Meleg Hill. At the board meeting of the branch on 5 August 1925 the president reported on the exploration of Csákvári-cave. At the board meeting of the branch on 30 September 1925 the president reported on the exploration of the Pákozdvár caves and the excavations carried out there, which were also inspected by Ottokár Kadić. Ottokár Kadić entrusted the branch with further exploration. Three notices about the three board meetings were published in the 1926 volume of Turisták Lapja.

In the 1931 issue of Turistaság és Alpinizmus, a notice written by Lajos Horn warned readers that on the 1:25,000 scale map named Velencei tó és környéke, Bárcaházi barlang should be read as Báracháza. In the 1951 Sport és Testnevelés, Kálmán Czeglényi published that the cave entrance is hidden by shrubs and that nothing interesting was seen by squeezing through the narrow opening. It consists of a narrow and long corridor and several side openings. Fox tracks and a few fox holes were discovered on the ground. According to the description published in the 1956 Természetjárás by László Holényi, a hard‑to‑find cave can be reached in the Velencei Mountains by heading west from the Angelika spring. Pákozdvár can be reached from the cave in 45 minutes.

The July 1958 issue of Természetjárás, in a publication by László Holényi, states that the only cave in the mountain range is located in the thick loess layer of Pákozdvár. The still undiscovered and uncharted cave consists of several passages and was probably dug by human hands. A photograph was attached to the article, showing a person painting a sign at the entrance of the Bárcaháza cave. In the July 1958 issue of Természetjárás, in a notice by Pál Jávorka, it is mentioned that the excavation of Pákozdvár in the Velencei Mountains uncovered several prehistoric underground dwellings shaped like beehives, which were not connected to each other. At that time a circular entrance 130 cm in diameter was discovered, leading to an underground four‑room dwelling. The 1960 Természetjárás notes that while sitting on a boulder in the Velencei Mountains, Miklós László thought of the prehistoric person who lived opposite, in the underground chambers of Pákozdvár.

It first saw the light in 1969, and the guidebook *Velencei-tó, Velencei-hegység útikalauz* states that the only cave in the Velencei Hills, the Báracházi Cave, is located on the side of Nagy-Pákozdvár. The cavity was most certainly created by human hands. It was probably turned into a shelter by the local inhabitants during the Tatar and Turkish raids or even earlier. The history of the cave is still unknown. It has long been observed that after the cave entrance the cave splits into five branches. Nowadays, however, one can only slip through the entrance. About 30–40 steps from the Pákozdvár trench there is a thick tree, near which the path leading to the Báracházi Cave a few steps away can be found. The cave of unknown origin can only be explored by experienced tourists with caution and suitable equipment, because its entrance is narrow.

Its detailed research was carried out in 1970 by Antal Kocsis. According to Antal Kocsis’s survey, the main branch of the cavity is about 16 metres long and the three side branches, already difficult to walk even by crawling, are just under 20 metres in length. The passages are one to two metres wide and high. The other side branches are no longer passable. In the trial pit he deepened, about 10 metres from the entrance, Antal Kocsis found unglazed pottery similar to that of the Pákozdvár excavations. Based on these finds, it is likely that the cavity is of the same age as the Bronze Age earth‑fort, i.e., it was not created as a bandit cave during the Tatar and Turkish raids or later, as was formerly believed. Another observation by Antal Kocsis is that, according to the plan, the continuation of the main branch cuts across the Bronze Age ditches on the surface and, at the crossing point, the ditch is deeply incised. From these observations it can be inferred that the cavity, which led out on the steep, hard‑to‑reach side of the hill, may have been a protective installation of the earth‑fort used for escape or regrouping.