Tétényi Plateau

The Tétény Plateau is a Hungarian geographical microregion and also one of the nationally protected nature conservation areas of the Danube–Ipoly National Park Directorate. It is a valuable area of the “green belt” bordering Budapest from the west, located in the southern foreland of the Buda Hills. Its vegetation consists mainly of heavily shrub-covered steppe with about 400 plant species, of which 45 are protected or strictly protected. It provides habitat for about 80 protected animal species. Its part covering nearly 300 hectares (known as the Érd‑Tétény plateau) is a site of European Community importance for nature conservation according to Regulation 14/2010 (V.11.) KvVM, designated as a Natura 2000 site.

Description

The protected parts of the Tétény Plateau fall within the administrative territories of Budapest District XXII (Budatétény and Nagytétény), Budapest District XI (Kamaraerdő), Budaörs‑Kamaraerdő, Törökbálint, Diósd and Érd.

On most of the area, thick limestone layers cover the Mediterranean pebble‑sand strata. Its average elevation is 200 m, its highest point is the 267‑metre‑high Anna Hill in Törökbálint, and within Budapest the 227‑metre‑high Vadász Hill in Kamaraerdő. (The highest point belonging to Budafok is the 192‑metre‑high Kereszt Hill (Óhegy).) On its western side, the adjoining Érd‑Sóskút Plateau’s highest prominence is the 334‑metre‑high Iharos Hill in Biatorbágy. The surface of the plateau is divided by step edges 5–10 m high at intervals of 600–800 m.

To the north by the Budaörsi basin, to the east and south by the Csepeli Plain in the Danube valley, and to the southwest by the valley of the Danube (Sídonia Valley) extending from the borders of Érd and Tárnok, the northwest–southeast-oriented depression separates it from the Érd–Sóskút plateau. (The Érd–Sóshút plateau is separated from the west by the valley of the Füzes stream from the Zsámbék basin, and by the valley of the Benta stream from the Etyek Hills.) The Tétényi plateau rises from the Budaörsi basin with a sharp edge 100 m high, then its surface, cut by ditches and smaller depressions, slopes gently toward the Danube. Its largest valley is the Égett Valley between Törökbálint and Diósd, which cuts through the plateau for 150–200 m in length and 30–40 m in depth. To the north‑northeast up to Budafok – formerly orchards, summer houses and weekend plots, now densely built mainly with family houses – a long, uniformly rising slope of the Budatétény gradually turns into a limestone plateau. On the western edge of the Érd–Sóskút plateau the limestone slabs of Madár-szirt and Nyakas-kő rise as 70–80 m high walls down to the valley of the Füzes stream.

The notable sights of the plateau are the huge cavernous voids left from underground limestone mining in Diósd, the Diósd Roman Cave, the second spring cave of Kaptárkő, and the Kaptárkő Cave.

History

The original vegetation could have been a mosaic of limestone-loving oak‑shrub‑rocky grassland. The forest was cleared several hundred years ago because the area was used as pasture. The relatively low‑intensity grazing allowed steppe species to survive (the shrubs could not proliferate excessively). In the 20th century the plateau was used for military purposes for decades. In the 1990s it began to function as an illegal landfill site. The part belonging to the 22nd district was completely cleared of waste and was declared a protected area in 1999. (In the 11th district and the Budaörsi part, unfortunately, illegal waste dumping still occurs today.)

The part of the plateau lying north of the Mechanical Works, whose environmental value is estimated by conservation experts at nearly ten billion forints, has been the subject of public and legal controversy since the regime change. Criticisms from some green organizations have partly targeted the operation of the Mechanical Works located in the area (and the successors of these works, operated under various names by different owners after the regime change), and partly the effort of local political forces to support the construction of a residential park built next to the former military‑purpose factory site. The residential park construction, in which, according to some sources, the Inter‑Europe Bank led by Péter Medgyessy was interested, but also supported by the local Fidesz and MSZP, eventually began, although (uniquely among the local municipal political forces) a MIÉP representative tried to stop it with an invalid referendum initiative lacking 52 supporting signatures. In the spring of 2001 the vegetation of the area was eradicated or transplanted, and the soil was in places stripped down to the rock base as part of trench‑digging works. The construction finally ceased (not because of the protests but due to a change of ownership of the area), and nature is beginning to reclaim the site.

A memorable explosion occurred on the former Mechanical Works site in August 2005, during which a large quantity of gunpowder detonated in the warehouse of Pyro‑Technic Ltd., a manufacturer of pyrotechnic devices, causing a fire that resulted in three fatalities and seven injured persons.

Protected designation

The City Council’s General Assembly declared a 111‑hectare portion of the plateau a nature‑protected area in the summer of 1999. This area, named the Érd‑Tétényi Plateau, is listed in the European Community Natura 2000 network as a site of significant conservation importance. This is recorded in decree 14/2010. (V. 11.) KvVM. In 2005 a nature trail was established on the area.

In December 2011 the Minister of Regional Development declared an additional 148 hectares of the plateau, located in the administrative territories of Törökbálint and the 22nd district of Budapest, to be protected – this already means protection at the national level. Together with the areas already under protection, this amounts to nearly 300 hectares of protected area on the Tétényi Plateau.