Remete-hegyi No 11 Cave

Remete-hegy No 11 Cave is one of the caves located in the Remete Gorge in the Danube–Ipoly National Park.

Description

In the Budai Landscape Protection Area, in the outskirts of Remeteszőlős, in a specially protected area, in the forest, on the eastern side of the Remete Gorge, on the steep and rocky side of Remete Hill, the cave has two entrances. It is located in the middle cave level of the gorge (this level lies 70 m above the valley floor, at an altitude of 340–350 m above sea level). The small cave is 18 m long, has a vertical extent of 7.5 m, a depth of 4.5 m and a height of 3 m. The cave passage is equipped with basic facilities; no permission is required to visit the cave.

In 1979 the cave was first called Remete-hegy No 11 Cave in the literature. In the literature the cave also appears under the names Cave No 11 (Horváth, Szunyogh 1971) and Remetehegy No 11 Cave (Bertalan 1976).

Research History

The 1877 Archaeological Bulletin mentions that the antiquities department of the Hungarian National Museum was enriched in November by one (animal) lower jaw, two bones and three pieces of pottery. These finds, which came from a rock shelter located near Remetemária in Buda, were donated to the museum by Lóczy Lajos. The 1904 Budapest Antiquities notes state that the rock shelters of Remetemária were probably Stone Age pasture sites, from which Lóczy Lajos (Archaeological N., 168/1877) brought coarse pottery fragments to the Hungarian National Museum.

It first saw the light in 1937, and in a publication written by István Jablonkay it is mentioned that on the left wall of the Remete gorge, at a distance of 50 m from the stream (upper level) and 10 m higher (lower level) there are spring caves. The spring cave located on the upper level is less developed and uglier than the other spring cave situated on the upper level, which can be observed along the entire length of the gorge. If a cave’s erosion base descends, the cave’s water system follows. This can happen, for example, when water leaves the old transitional cave and the old spring cave, and then, descending through thin cracks in the rock, creates a new cave system. In this case a new spring cave opens beneath the old one, at the new level of the subsided erosion base. The old upper entrance is then broken by the remaining karst breccia. The abandoned spring caves lining the left wall of the Remete gorge are fine examples of this process. The erosion base of these caves was the stream of the cave whose collapse formed the gorge. The upper‑level caves indicate the former height of the gorge‑cave stream before the segmental change.

In the chapter written by Ferenc Tompa in the 1942 book *Budapest története* it is mentioned that after Flóris Rómer, Géza Nagy also noted that coarse pots had emerged from the rock hollows of Remetemária, probably originating from the polished stone age. Sándor Leél‑Őssy gave a lecture at the Hungarian Hydrological Society meeting of 9 March 1949. The topic of the lecture was the Seven‑hole. The lecture also mentioned the other caves of the Remete gorge. Sándor Leél‑Őssy gave a lecture at the society’s specialist meeting of 9 November 1949, in which he presented the caves of the Remete gorge.

The Hydrological Gazette 1950 volume, numbers 3–4, published the text of the lecture given by Leél-Őssy Sándor on March 9, 1949. The publication’s title is The Remete‑hegy Seven‑hole Cave. The study mentions that the currently high‑located but already dry, dying spring caves of Remete‑hegy were formed in the Pliocene and early Pleistocene. (Cave under the seven holes, Remete‑hegy stone‑cell and a few other smaller unfinished or broken caves, as well as a spring chamber.) Afterwards, due to the young tectonic uplift and the climatic origin of the erosion base’s incision, the karst water level of Remete‑hegy also fell and the caves that had become dry began to die out.

From the study by Leél-Őssy Sándor published in the 1950 Hydrological Gazette numbers 11–12 (this study is the lecture delivered on November 9, 1949) it can be learned that, according to the book published by Jenő Cholnoky in 1936, the Remete gorge is a broken‑tongue water cave. The small caves currently found on the side of the gorge are the side caves (cave capture) cut off from this broken old large cave due to the breakage. István Jablonkay, in his 1937 dissertation, explains the formation of the gorge’s karst forms by the genesis imagined by Jenő Cholnoky. In Sándor Láng’s 1948 study it is written that the present dry, high‑located caves are the result of the young tectonic uplift and the lowering of the karst water level. According to Leél-Őssy Sándor, on the side of Remete‑hegy, above the Máriaremete gorge, the karst forms are represented mainly by caves. These caves are small, dry and short. With a single exception (Remete Cave) they are all high above the valley floor, therefore old, dying caves.

In the middle cave level of the gorge (this level lies 70 m above the valley floor, at an altitude of 340–350 m a.s.l.), there are a few smaller dry and short, as well as collapsed spring caves, next to the Remete-hegyi-kőfülke, the Remete-hegyi 14th cave and the Remete-hegyi 10th cave. However, it is unnecessary to deal with these in detail. It is quite possible that a few more caves could still be discovered here with professional research and excavation. On Remete Hill there are no water inlets or hidden caves, only on the D side there are a few spring caves and the Hét-lyuk.