Papp Ferenc Cave

The Papp Ferenc Cave was for a long time the longest and deepest cave of the Pilis Mountains. Since 1982 it has been one of the caves in Hungary that are specially protected. It is located in the Danube–Ipoly National Park. It is also presented in tourist guidebooks.

Description

In the outskirts of Pilisborosjenő, near Budakalász, on the abandoned large stone quarry’s upper part in the Ezüst-hegy DK area, on the ENy side, is the entrance of the cave facing the DK. At the foot of the quarry’s rock wall, at an altitude of 372 m above sea level, a tunnel-like opening under a ledge opens a 1 m wide, 1.6 m high, slope‑axis‑directed, chiseled‑out, curved and irregularly shaped entrance. Next to the entrance of the 2nd numbered cave of Ezüst-hegy a rock‑carved inscription “Papp Ferenc‑cave” can be seen, which can cause the two caves to be confused.

It can be reached on foot, on easy terrain. The simplest approach on foot is along the tourist trail marked with a red stripe from the Budapest Csillaghegy HÉV station. Some tourist maps indicate its location with a cave symbol, but without the cave’s name.

In the stone quarry that houses the Papp Ferenc Cave there is also much information about two other caves, the 1st numbered cave of Ezüst-hegy, which has been destroyed, and the 2nd numbered cave of Ezüst-hegy. Moving upward in the quarry yard toward the rock wall, first the entrance of the 2nd numbered cave of Ezüst-hegy can be seen, which is larger than the entrance of the Papp Ferenc Cave located about 20 m to the north‑east, in the ENy corner of the stone mine and 2 m higher.

Its horizontal extent is 52 m. In addition to its dimensions, it is geologically important because in the cave deeper than 60 m a series of sedimentary rock layers of the mountain is exposed: the Oligocene Hárshegy sandstone located at the surface, the upper Eocene marl layers, the upper Triassic Dachstein limestone and the dolomite. The cave can be divided into two clearly distinguishable parts. The upper, Hárshegy sandstone part was formed by collapses and sinkholes and is labyrinthine. The lower part, located in carbonate rocks, the larger part was formed by solution in acidic water. The two sections are connected by the passage called Csiga. In some places cold water solution tubes can be seen. The cave is not closed, but a permit from the Directorate of the Danube–Ipoly National Park is required for its visitation. It can be explored with basic caving equipment and caving practice.

The cave is named after Papp Ferenc, who died shortly before its discovery. In 1969 the cave was first called Papp Ferenc Cave in the literature. The cave also appears in the literature under the names Silver‑Hill Cave No. III (Kordos 1977), Silver‑Hill 3rd cave (Kordos 1980), Silver‑Hill IIIrd cave (Kordos 1977), Silver‑Hill 3rd cave (Eszterhás 1989), Silver‑Hill IIIrd cave (Bertalan 1976), Silver‑Hill upper caves (Leél‑Őssy 1958), Silver‑Hill upper‑caves (Szenti, Eszterhás 2001), cave of the large Silver‑Hill stone quarry (Kordos 1984), cave of the large Silver‑Hill stone quarry (Bertalan 1976), Silver‑Hill No. 3 Cave (Takácsné, Eszterhás, Juhász, Kraus 1989) and Papp Ferenc Cave (Bertalan 1976). The Silver‑Hill upper cave is the Silver‑Hill 2nd cave and the Papp Ferenc Cave.

Research History

The study published in 1958 and written by Sándor Leél‑Őssy describes the Silver‑Hill upper caves. According to the description, there are upper Eocene bryozoan marl spots beneath the Hárshegy sandstone at the cave on Silver‑Hill. The caves in the Kevély‑Hill group are mainly of acidic water origin, but among them are also karstic (Ürömi water‑draining cave) and tectonic caves (Silver‑Hill caves). The two small and narrow-sized bat caves are located in the upper sandstone mines at the end of the Silver‑Hill DK, at about 350–360 m above sea level. The larger one is 10 m long and 4 m deep. Since the two caves were formed in non‑karstic sandstone along their entire length, they can only be tectonic fissure caves. In addition, later slips and collapses along the inclined bedding plane played an important role in shaping the current form of the two caves. Because of mass movements, the two caves turned into a complex debris labyrinth, similar to the Csörgő hole. A sketch map was attached to the study, showing the Kevély‑Hill group. The sketch map shows the geographical location of the Silver‑Hill upper caves. In the drawing and the text the two caves are marked with the numbers 7 and 8.

In the 1958 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin a cave description was published, which was written based on the study issued in the Geographical Bulletin. In the 1967 book Pilis Travel Guide it appeared that in the upper limestone quarry at the end of the Ezüst-hegy DK there are several tiny fissure caves. The cave was discovered on February 16, 1969 by a group of speleologists of the Red Meteor Nature Lovers Association led by István Szenthe. István Szenthe suspected that the near‑horizontal limestone layers, which are broken and subsided over a section of about 30 m, must form a cave. After a long search among the collapsed huge limestone blocks, the cave was found after dismantling.

According to the notice published in the 1969 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin, the interesting cave was uncovered a few weeks before the notice appeared. The water‑origin cave, more than 400 m long, is the longest cave in the Pilis and is particularly significant from a geological point of view because in the natural exposure of more than 60 m depth the stratigraphic sequence and deposition of the mountain’s sedimentary rocks are very well observable, from the surface Oligocene three‑hill limestone through the upper Eocene units (Budai marl, bryozoan marl and Nummulites limestone) to the upper Triassic Dachstein limestone and dolomites, and the direction and magnitude of tectonic movements are also visible.