Remete-hegyi No 3 Cave

The Remete-hegy No. 3 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 east side of the Remete Gorge, at the north entrance of the gorge, on the steep and rocky side of Remete Hill, the cave entrance is at 325 m above sea level. It is located in the middle cave level of the gorge (this level lies 70 m above the valley floor, at 340–350 m above sea level). Numbered from north to south in the Remete Gorge according to the rock chambers, the Remete‑hegyi stone niche, the Remete‑hegyi No. 2 cave, the Remete‑hegyi No. 3 cave and the Remete‑hegyi No. 4 cave are in the 1st rock chamber. The stone niche and the three small caves are situated almost on the same altitude. On the south side of the Remete‑hegyi stone niche fissure, separated by shallow water erosion, in forest‑covered rock walls, between the 1st rock chamber and the barren 2nd rock chamber, lies the Remete‑hegyi No. 3 cave. Descending 13 m down the wooded and steep slope in front of the Remete‑hegyi No. 2 cave, the Remete‑hegyi No. 3 cave is located at the south corner of the rock wall.

The Remete-hegy No. 3 cave is 16 m long, 9.5 m high and has a vertical extent of 9.5 m. The fissure‑shaped cavity is layered with stalactites in its upper parts. Through a narrow 4 m crawling passage one can reach its inner chamber, at the end of which a narrow fissure filled with rubble deepens. The Remete-hegy No. 4 cave opens 7 m east of the Remete-hegy No. 3 cave, in the same fissure (the upper part of the fissure being more degraded), 6 m higher. The Remete-hegy No. 3 cave and the Remete-hegy No. 4 cave are very close to each other. They may be connected at a deeper level. Small dissolved voids are present beside both caves in the rock wall. No permission is required to visit the cave, which is open and equipped with basic cave‑passage facilities.

In 1984 the cave was first called Remete-hegy No. 3 cave in the literature. The cave also appears in the literature as cave No. 3 (Horváth, Szunyogh 1971), Máriaremetei No. 3 cave (Bertalan 1976) and Remetehegyi No. 3 cave (Bertalan 1976).

Research history

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

According to an article by Endre Kazay published in the 1915 volume of Turisták Lapja, Endre Kazay and Gyula (Julius) Tödter went hiking to the Máriaremete gorge on an October day to examine the gorge’s caves. At the foot of the rock of the 2nd cave they found another cavity called the 3rd cave, whose regularly shaped entrance was probably not of natural origin. Gyula Tödter was the first of the two to crawl into the cave. The cave entrance faces south‑west and is 1.5 m long, 1 m wide and high (this part appears to have been artificially cut). The next 1 m of the entrance narrows to only 30 cm wide and only a thin person lying on his side, such as Endre Kazay, can squeeze through, but even then it is advisable to consider in advance how the entrant will position his two arms.

The cave is only 2 m long and 1.7 m wide, but its height exceeds 4 m, therefore it appears to be a rockfall. Its floor slopes slightly toward the ENE. Between two rocks at the end of the cave a narrow shaft leads downwards. After half an hour of scraping they were able to pull out a 40 kg stone block that blocked the shaft. They worked alternately, like moles. Gyula Tödter threw earth at Endre Kazay’s neck and eyes, but they still could not get out through the opening. The widening of the opening was postponed to another occasion. They climbed onto the rock block that forms the cave’s ceiling, from which Endre Kazay noticed the beaten path leading left in the valley to the Remete cave. The study includes the floor plan map and longitudinal section map of the cave made by Endre Kazay. The publication shows the site plan of the Máriaremete cave region, on which the geographic location of the 3rd cave is marked. The site plan was drawn by Endre Kazay.

It first saw the light in 1937, and in a publication written by István Jablonkay there is mention that on the left wall of the Remete gorge, 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 others, the spring caves situated on the upper level, which can be observed along the entire length of the gorge. If a cave’s erosion base moves downwards, the cave’s water system follows. This can, for example, happen 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 beautiful 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.