Szemlő-hegy Cave

Szemlő-hegy Cave is one of the caves in Budapest developed for tourism. The highly protected cave is part of the Danube–Ipoly National Park Directorate. The surface protection zone of the cave, called the Szemlő-hegy Cave Surface Protection Zone Nature Conservation Area, is a nationally significant nature conservation area protected by a unique law.

Description

In the Budai Mountains, in the Szemlőhegy district of Budapest’s 2nd district, on József Hill, under Pusztaszeri Road 35, is its entrance. It can be approached by bus from Kolosy Square, by bus 29 (departing from Árpád Bridge Szentlélek Square) or by bus 111 from Batthyány Square to the stop named Szemlő-hegy Cave. It is accessible by stroller and wheelchair. The tour lasts about 40 minutes. A permit from the Danube–Ipoly National Park Directorate is required to visit sections not opened to tourism. Because the cave has no natural entrance, there are no bats, so flash photography is allowed.

The cave is 2,230 m long and has a vertical extent of 50.4 m. The tour route is 250 m, which can be walked on a path and stairs.

The work of the thermal waters is recorded by the cave’s characteristic formations, the “borsókövek”, which form at points in the limestone where the wall is reached by the water from the heat sources. The borsókövek form clusters of yellow‑white spherical nodules. These are associated with gypsum coatings and needle‑like aragonite groups. The cave is one of Budapest’s highly protected natural values.

In 1976 it was first named Szemlő-hegyi-barlang in the scientific literature. In its literature Szemlő-hegyi-barlang also occurs under the names University Cave, Kadić Cave (Cholnoky 1932), Kadić Ottokár-aragonite cave, Kadič Ottokár Cave (Kordos 1984), Ottokár Cave (Cholnoky 1932), Rothermere Cave, Szemlő-hegy Cave (Kordos 1977), Szemlőhegyi-barlang (Cholnoky 1932), Szemlőhegyi cave (Cholnoky 1932), Zöldmáli Cave (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976) and Zöldmáli dripstone cave.

Research history

In the autumn of 1930, on one of the plots beside Zöldmáli Road, at the present address 10 Barlang Street, a narrow, deep-leading opening was discovered during stone extraction. Informed by the plot owner, cave explorers widened the narrow opening by removing several larger stones and descended into a vertical, then steeply sloping, very beautiful passage rich in solutional forms, a tube-like gallery. The corridor eventually became blocked. On September 20, 1930, cave explorers Kessler Hubert and Futó András, by opening the clogged part, first entered the unique formation-filled Rózsalugas, and then managed to penetrate several large-sized corridors. Szekula Mária on September 28, 1930 passed through the Long Corridor at the Needle point thanks to its thin wall and new sections were revealed. According to her report, they widened the narrow passage.

It first saw daylight in 1932, and in the book written by Endre Dudich the Szemlőhegyi cave is mentioned among the caves of the Buda Hills. The cave was discovered in 1930 and its explored length is about 600 m. Like the Pál-völgyi cave, the Szemlő-hegyi cave is primarily of corrosion origin, but the Szemlő-hegyi cave contains dripstones and stalactite-like limestone formations. It is the property of pharmacist Géza Miklós. The description was written based on three publications. In the 1932 book *Nature Conservation and Natural Monuments* the section on the Szemlő-hegyi cave from the 1931 edition of the book is repeated.

The book published in 1937 and written by Gyula Szeghalmy mentions that almost in the centre of Buda, from the Rose Garden villa estate to É, a huge cave region lies deep in the earth: the Szemlő-hegyi cave, the Ferenc-hegyi cave and the Pál-völgyi cave area. These recently discovered cave passages were created by karst water flowing deep in the earth and emerging thermal sources in the Pliocene and the Pleistocene in Eocene bryozoan marble, but mainly in Eocene nummulite limestone. The total length of the caves is more than 4000 m, but judging from the signs only a small part of the passages hidden deep in the earth has been discovered. Further research, wall breaking and excavation will decide whether, besides Baradla cave, Hungary’s other largest cave network lies beneath the Buda Hills.

The entrance of the Szemlő-hegy Cave is located on plot number 15312 of Zöldmáli Road, about 600–700 m from Rózsadomb. The entrance has a slope of about 70 m to the deepest part of the cave. Currently its easily accessible sections are longer than 1000 m. Interesting formations can be collected from the walls that preserve traces of the water’s dissolving effect. The lower passages are covered with 20–30 cm thick, extremely delicate rose dripstone, which sparkle wonderfully in the light of lamps. The branches of the rose dripstone ending in spheres are so strong that they can support the weight of a person clinging to the walls. From these pea‑like arranged surfaces hang small, yellow‑green, currently developing, tiny, snow‑white, star‑crystalline little pendant dripstones, which in some places cast fantastic shaped shadows on the walls.