Remete-hegyi Niche

The Remete-hegy stone niche is a cave located in the Remete Gorge within the Danube–Ipoly National Park. It is among the caves specially protected in Hungary. Upper Pleistocene paleontological and medieval archaeological finds have been recovered from it. Its entrance is visible from a distance and therefore is one of the characteristic features of the Remete Gorge. It is one of the caves of the Buda Hills that can be seen from the greatest distance, the other being the Gellérthegy cave.

Description

In the Buda Landscape Protection Area, in the outskirts of Remeteszőlős, in a specially protected area, in the forest, on the eastern side of the Remete Gorge, at the northern entrance of the gorge, on the steep, rocky side of Remete Hill, the cave entrance is situated 54 m above the valley floor. It is visible from Nagykovácsi Road, opening to the DK, with a huge, arched entrance 12 m high and 5 m wide oriented along the horizontal axis. Tourist maps mark the cave with its name. In the middle cave level of the Remete Gorge (this level lies 70 m above the valley floor at an elevation of 340–350 m above sea level), the Remete cave is to the east‑north‑east. The same level also contains the Upper cave of the Remete Valley. The view from the stone niche is beautiful.

The cave formed in Triassic Dachstein limestone has a horizontal extent of 13 m. The entrance niche was created at the intersection of two fissures, with a volume of 216 m³, roughly rectangular in plan, 5 m wide, 7 m long, from whose rear wall a passage continues at a height of 2 m for about 9 m in length. Inside the cave there is a small chamber and a crawlway leading from it. The cave can be traversed without a permit and with basic caving equipment, as it is not locked.

In 1914, a very large number of rodent, bird and fish remains were recovered from its filling. In addition to the bird remains, about 5,000 bones, such as cave bear, reindeer, cave hyena, horse, arctic fox, marmot, ermine, weasel, common ferret, wildcat, meadow rabbit, Siberian lemming and musk ox bones were collected, which were identified by Tivadar Kormos. The identification of the cave hyena is uncertain. The predator is represented by only a single finger in the collection. The only jaw of the Siberian lemming was recovered from the upper Pleistocene layer. In the two Pleistocene layers there were 33 mammal species, 49 bird species, one lizard species, two frog species and two snail species, as well as fish remains.

The remains of the long-eared bat were first found in this cave in Hungary in a Pleistocene layer. Their identification is thanks to Lajos Méhelÿ. More than 3,200 jaws and skulls of the cave vole have been recovered from the two Pleistocene layers, and about half of them are common vole bones. Almost 1,000 common mole remains have seen daylight. This is the second certain locality of musk ox in Hungary, first found in the Puskaporos cave chamber. One fossil, almost complete ermine skull was, according to Tivadar Kormos, the most beautiful and most complete ermine skull found in Hungary up to that time.

Besides the Remete Hill cave chamber, musk ox bones have been recovered from seven Hungarian caves so far: from the Király-kút zsomboly, the Lengyel cave, the Pes stone cave, the Pilisszántó stone chamber, the Puskaporos cave chamber, the Remete cave and the Suba hole.

The few frog bones were examined by Géza Fejérváry Gyula, the fish remains by Gyula Leidenfrost. The fossil bones belonging to 49 bird species were identified by Kálmán Lambrecht. The large lilik, sparrowhawk, carvaly, small buzzard, blue tit, hawk, forest ear owl, snowy owl, Ural owl, European pygmy owl, dolmányos raven, snipe, sandpiper, spade‑billed sandpiper, fusty swallow, pine bunting, northern whistler and ringing reed warbler bones that came to light are the first Pleistocene bones found in Hungary of large lilik, sparrowhawk, carvaly, small buzzard, blue tit, hawk, forest ear owl, snowy owl, Ural owl, European pygmy owl, dolmányos raven, snipe, sandpiper, spade‑billed sandpiper, fusty swallow, pine bunting, northern whistler and ringing reed warbler.

The whistling reed warbler bone is the second such whistling reed warbler bone found in Hungary that is Pleistocene. It was first recovered from Balla Cave, although the Balla Cave bone is not certainly a whistling reed warbler bone. The gypsy reed, quail, guvat, spotted water pipit, forest nightjar, swift pigeon, large woodpecker, cross‑billed, snow‑snipe and the gatyás owl bones are the second such gypsy reed, quail, guvat, spotted water pipit, forest nightjar, swift pigeon, large woodpecker, cross‑billed, snow‑snipe and gatyás owl bones found in Hungary that are Pleistocene.

The fish are represented by the head‑shaped loach, a Leuciscus species, which probably includes the bream, the plum‑snouted roach, the Jász roach and the pike. According to Gyula Leidenfrost, the river water nearest to the cave is the Danube and therefore the finds entered the fill from the Danube.

The cave occurs in literature under the names Betyár-kőfülke (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1973–1974), Betyárodú (Jablonkay 1937), Kis-Remetebarlang (Thirring 1900), Kis-Remete cave (Szabó 1879), Kőfülke (M. P. 1920), Kő-fülke (Horváth, Szunyogh 1971), this is also one of the names of the Sárkány-lik, Máriaremetei-sziklafülke (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1973–1974), Mörder-lücke (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1973–1974), Mőrderlücke (Jablonkay 1937), Remete-hegyi 1. sz. cave (Kordos 1984), Remetehegyi 1. sz. cave (Bertalan 1976), Remetehegyi-kőfülke (Éhik 1915), Remetehegyi Kőfülke (Földváry 1935), Remete-hegyi kőfülke (Horváth, Szunyogh 1971), Remetehegyi kőfülke (Kadić 1915), Remetehegyi rock chamber (Leidenfrost 1915), Remetehegyi rock cavity (Kadić, Mottl 1938), Remetehegy kőfülkéje (Tasnádi Kubacska 1932), Remetei-kőfülke (Pápa, Dénes 1982), Remetei kőfülke (Barcza, Thirring 1920), Remete-kőfülke (Kordos 1977) and Remete-máriai upper cave (Kordos 1984). In 1971 the cave was mentioned for the first time in literature under the name Remete-hegyi-kőfülke.