Szabadság Cave

The Szabadság Cave is the third longest cave of the Aggtelek Karst. Since 1982 it has been one of the caves in Hungary with increased protection. Its entrance opens on the edge of Égerszög at an altitude of 322 m above sea level. The Szabadság Cave, together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst, is part of the World Heritage.

Discovered in 1954, the geologically significant cave contains many speleothems. Its tourist development was started in 1961, but it was never opened to the general public. In 1991 a new section of about 500 metres length was uncovered.

Description

The cave entrance is located next to the tourist trail marked with a red stripe that runs between Égerszög and Jósvafő.

The cave is interesting because it passes through varied rock layers that differ in their propensity for cave formation, so the passages vary greatly in size and shape. The middle Triassic, Wetterstein limestone, formed between the water sink and the entrance part; accordingly, the first roughly 1100‑metre section of the cave, the Realised Dreams branch, is well‑traversable and very rich in various formations such as popcorn stones, dripstones and, in some places, tufa curtains. After that follows the most difficult part of the cave, the only 64‑metre‑long Kuszoda, which runs in a dolomite layer, where the ceiling height drops below 30 centimetres in several places. This means that not even a boot can fit vertically while crawling.

The Kuszoda continuously transitions into the Tube Passage, which already reaches a height of two to three meters, as limestone begins to dominate the enclosing rock again instead of dolomite. At the end of the interesting passage, whose cross‑section often resembles a keyhole, a compacted clay layer can already be observed, and after this follows the cave’s largest chamber, the 32‑metre‑long Giant Hall. The floor of the hall is covered with debris and beneath the debris flows the water of the Goat‑well. Water runs at the water‑well and the main branch only during spring snowmelt or heavy rains. The hall is followed by the roughly 400‑metre‑long section called Hell, which is divided into several cave levels separated from each other by thin ceilings.

Only on the upper level are stalactites found. At the old endpoint, whose name Hell splits into two branches, researchers in 1991 entered the new part, another large chamber called the Félix Hall, and discovered a trumpet reaching up to +13 metres, then reaching the current endpoint in the Clay Canyon.

The closed cave can be visited with basic caving equipment and with permission from the Administration of Aggtelek National Park.

The cave also appears in literature under the names Égerszögi Szabadság-cseppkőbarlang (Szunyogh 2003), Égerszögi‑víznyelő (Kordos 1984), Freedom Cave (Kordos 1977), Kecskekút‑system (Kordos 1984), Kecskéskút‑system (Szunyogh 2003), Szabadság Cave (Kordos 1977) and Szabadság cseppkőbarlang (Bertalan 1976).

Research History

At the foot of Pitics Hill on the edge of Égerszög, the Dász sinkhole and the water‑well at its bottom were already attempted to be opened by László Jakucs in 1952, but no result was achieved in the constantly collapsing work site. In 1954, the Cave Exploration Group of the Kinizsi Sports Club of the Ministry of Food Industry, led by Dénes Balázs, began research work. Initially they tried to explore the Teresztenyei source cave and, after several unsuccessful attempts to break through water‑wells, they started working in the Dász sinkhole, thus gaining entry to the Szabadság Cave.

The narrow exploratory passage did not make the researchers' work easier, collapsed several times, occasionally trapping the researchers inside the cave, therefore in 1955 staff of the State Geophysical Institute determined the surface projection of the cave's first chamber and in the same year created an artificial entrance. After the electromagnetic measurements the chamber was named the Magnet Chamber. The cave was explored over a length of 2717 metres, from the then endpoint, the Pokol, it was only in 1991 that it was possible to advance further with the discovery of a roughly 500‑metre‑long new section, increasing its length to 3219 metres. The passage discovered by researchers working under the direction of Vidics Zoltánné and Frecska József approaches the cave's source, the Kecske‑kutat, at about 650 m.

The manuscript completed in 1976 and written by Bertalan Károly mentions that the Szabadság dripstone cave (Égerszögi water well, Kecskekút system) is located in Égerszög. The cave entrance is about 1.6 km from Égerszög to NyÉNy, in the Dász‑töbör at the foot of Pitics‑hegy K, above the Kecske‑kút at a relative height of 81.4 m. The entrance is an artificially opened water well, excavated with a shovel to a depth of 13 m. The cave is 3.1 km long, 13 m deep and has a volume of 18 600 m³. The partially active karst cave is multi‑level. Parts of it are built out for tourists. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on three publications. In 1976 the Szabadság dripstone cave in Égerszög, located in the 5400 (Aggtelek karst) cave‑cadastral area, became a cave of national significance. After the clarification of the cave names listed in the 1976 compiled list of caves of national significance, on 30 May 1977 the list of caves of national significance compiled includes the cave on the Aggtelek karst, located in Égerszög, under the name Szabadság‑cave.

From the English-language special issue of Karst and Cave 1977, the publication titled The longest and deepest caves of Hungary (December 31, 1975) it can be learned that the 2717 m long Szabadság Cave (Freedom Cave) located on the Aggtelek Karst was Hungary’s 6th longest cave on December 31 1975. According to the state on December 31 1977 (MKBT Invitation May 1978) the Szabadság Cave on the Aggtelek Karst, 2717 m long, was the country’s 5th longest cave. Based on the compilation published in Karst and Cave 1977, on December 31 1977 the Szabadság Cave, located on the Aggtelek Karst and 2717 m long in 1977, 1976 and 1975, was Hungary’s 6th longest cave. This compilation is more up‑to‑date than the list published in the May 1978 MKBT Invitation.