Strázsa-hegyi rock shelter

The Strázsa-hegyi rock shelter is a cave located on Nagy-Strázsa Hill in the Pilis Mountains of the Danube–Ipoly National Park.

Description

The Strázsa-hegyi rock shelter is situated in the Esztergom-Kertváros district, on the Danube side of Nagy-Strázsa Hill (Strázsa Hill), about 3 m below and 8–10 m east of the Strázsa-hegyi cave. The 8 m long rock shelter has a large entrance that faces the Danube. The cave formed in Upper Triassic Dachstein limestone through corrosion and freeze‑thaw disintegration. In several places on the cavity wall, pepperstone, calcite sponge and overgrown rhombohedral calcite can be observed, although they are very weathered. The easily accessible, easily walkable cave can be viewed without permission, in street clothing, and without the use of equipment.

The cave also appears in the literature under the names Strázsa-hegyi-kőfülke (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1973–1974), Strázsa-hegyi kőfülke (Véghelyi 1922–1925), Strázsahegyi kőfülke (Földváry 1935), Strázsa-hegyi-sziklaodu (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1973–1974), Strázsa-hegyi sziklaodu (Kárpát 1991), Strázsahegyi sziklaodu (Schőnviszky 1937), Sztrázsahegyi kőfülke (Kadić 1952) and Sztrázsahegyi sziklaodu (Kadić 1952). In 1984 the cave was first called Strázsa-hegyi-sziklaodú in the literature.

Research History

In the 1922–1925 Cave Research publication, Lajos Véghelyi reported that in the barren limestone cliffs of the Danube side of Old Strázsa Hill, within its karstified rock group, he found three cavities, one of which was the Strázsa-hegyi kőfülke. He gave the cavity the name kőfülke because its formation corresponds to the kőfülke rock‑cavity type. The kőfülke is located at an altitude of 284 m above sea level and faces Dorog. The 1925 Esztergom Yearbooks mention that on the very karstified part of Old Strázsa Hill towards Tábla Hill, rock cavities occur. The 1935 Forestry Papers state that in the karstified rock group of Strázsa Hill, located near Esztergom and rich in very interesting rock formations, Lajos Véghelyi discovered three cavities. He gave one of them the name Strázsa-hegyi kőfülke.

In the 1937 volume of Turisták Lapja, in a study written by László Schőnviszky, the Strázsahegyi kőfülke and Strázsahegyi sziklaodu described as two separate caves are actually the same cave, the Strázsa-hegyi-sziklaodú. The publication states that the kőfülke opens east of the Strázsa-hegyi-barlang, in the southeastern slope of the ridge. Traces of old fire can be seen on the walls of the huge, eight–nine metre high, insignificant niche. According to the description, the sziklaodú is located west of the Strázsa-hegyi-barlang, a few metres higher. On the right side of the few‑metre‑wide small cavity a deeper, impassably narrow hole begins. In Ottó Kadić’s manuscript completed in 1952, László Schőnviszky’s cave descriptions were repeated. In the manuscript the Strázsa-hegyi-sziklaodú is also described as two separate caves, one cave named Sztrázsahegyi kőfülke, the other cave named Sztrázsahegyi sziklaodu.

The paper published in the 1953 Geographical Bulletin and written by Sándor Láng mentions that on Nagy-Strázsa Hill there are three long‑known caves (Strázsa‑hegyi-barlang, Strázsahegyi kőfülke, Strázsa‑hegyi Rókalyuk) and one recently discovered cave (Sátorkőpusztai-barlang). Of the three caves described earlier, the largest is the Strázsa‑hegyi-barlang. The entrance of the Strázsahegyi kőfülke facing Dorog, DNy is located at an altitude of 284 m above sea level. The small kőfülke located 5 m from the Strázsa‑hegyi-barlang is a corrosion‑origin cave, which was dissolved by water emerging from the interior of the hill to the surface. This cave was also dissolved by karst water (as were the Strázsa‑hegyi-barlang and the Strázsa‑hegyi Rókalyuk), therefore it is a spring cave. Already Lajos Véghelyi thought that the upper three caves of the hill (Strázsa‑hegyi-barlang, Strázsahegyi kőfülke, Strázsa‑hegyi Rókalyuk) were formed along a common fissure system. Sándor Láng assumed that the upper three caves are connected with the lower Sátorkőpusztai-barlang as well and that each was dissolved by karst water enriched with fungi.

In the manuscript completed in 1976 and written by Károly Bertalan, the stone cell and the rock shelter are presented as two separate caves. The descriptions of the stone cell were based on the publications of László Schőnviszky and Sándor Láng. According to the manuscript, the Blinkhorn stone cell is located in the Pilis Mountains, in the Pilis region, in Esztergom. The entrance facing the cave faces the DK, located 5 m from the Blinkhorn cave, in the scree of the DK slope, at an altitude of about 284 m a.s.l. The source cave is 8–9 m high and its walls show traces of ancient hearths. The rock shelter was processed based on the work of László Schőnviszky. According to the manuscript, the Blinkhorn rock shelter is located in the Pilis Mountains, in the Pilis region, in Esztergom. Its entrance is a few meters higher to the north of the Blinkhorn cave. From the right side of the 2–3 m long cave, a narrow, deeper passage leads off without a walkway.

In the cave name index of the Hungarian speleology bibliography compiled by Bertalan Károly and László Schőnviszky and published in 1976, the cave is mentioned as two separate caves in the Pilis Mountains, named Strázsa-hegyi-kőfülke and Strázsa-hegyi-sziklaodu. The cave name index lists one literary work in which Strázsa-hegyi-kőfülke and Strázsa-hegyi-sziklaodu appear. In the national cave list of the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984, the cave is included among the caves of the Pilis Mountains, but as two separate caves. One cave is named Strázsa-hegyi-kőfülke, the other cave is named Strázsa-hegyi-sziklaodu. Associated with the list is a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographic location of the caves of the Dunazug Mountains, indicating the geographic positions of the two caves. In the 1991 compilation by József Kárpát it is mentioned that the Strázsa-hegyi rock shelter (Esztergom) is 3 m long and has no depth, and the Strázsa-hegyi stone niche (Esztergom) is 8 m long and 0 m deep.