Vízesés-alatti Cave

The Vízesés-alatti Cave is one of those artificial cavities that are called caves. It is located in the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in the Pomázi Holdvilág trench. It is also mentioned in tourist guidebooks.

Description

In the Pomázi Holdvilág trench, 30 meters north of the Y-branch cave, directly under the seasonal waterfall, a gray‑white amphibole‑andesite tunnel opens. Its current entrance consists of a horizontal stretch that is almost 10 meters long, whose height is 70 centimeters on the right side and gradually narrows to the left. Through the larger right‑hand section one can enter the corridor heading north. Its length is 9.1 meters. The part of the corridor near the exit is heavily filled with debris, probably material brought in by the waterfall, but as one approaches the end point the debris becomes less and in the last meters one can even stand upright.

The corridor originally may have had a similar cross‑section as the nearby Y‑branch cave, i.e., about 2 meters wide and about 2.2 meters high. Approximately 15–16 m³ of debris may still be in the cavity, whereas in the early 1980s the Békásmegyeri Cave Exploration Group extracted about 5–6 m³. 1.5 m before the end point, at the upper part of the cross‑section, a 70 cm radius semicircular flat is also found here, just as in the Y‑branch cave.

This cavity is now visited by significantly fewer people, because one can only crawl through its entrance – there are no newer scratches, modern wall paintings, and there is also less trash.

The cavity appears in the literature under the names Holdvilág‑árki‑vizesés alatti barlangnyilás (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1976), Vizes‑cave, Vizesés alatti barlang (Eszterhás 1993), Vízesés alatti üreg, Vízesés‑cave and Vízesés mögötti üreg.

Formation

Among earlier descriptions, only Erdélyi, Kucsera and Rappai consider this cavity a former shrine, not Ézsiás, although he also regards the nearby, formally completely similar Y‑branch cave as such. Because of its similar cross‑section, its proximity to the Y‑branch cave – it opens about 30 meters away – Bresztovszky Ede also judged this cavity to be a former cultic place, whose function could have been related to the former. István Eszterhás holds the same opinion.

Research History

The publication titled Budapest Duna-jobbparti környéke, which appeared in 1920, mentions that there are two caves in the Holdvilág-árok ravine that are corridor-like, apparently artificial, and about 20–25 m long. One of them lies in the waterfall’s fall line and is therefore very interesting to look at through the waterfall. The book Budapest Duna-jobbparti környéke, published in 1924, notes that there are two caves in the Holdvilág-árok ravine that are about 20–25 m long, corridor-like and apparently artificial. One of them is in the waterfall’s fall line, making it very interesting to peek through the waterfall.

The 1926–1927 Barlangkutatás reports that during bat observations conducted in 1923–1924 by András Tasnádi Kubacska and Lajos Véghelyi, a brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus L.) was found in the artificially cut cavity of the Holdvilág-árok at Pilisvörösvár. The 1929 travel guide written by Gusztáv Thirring repeats the part of the 1920 book that presents the Under‑Waterfall Cave. A photograph published in the 1931 issue of Turisták Lapja shows the Holdvilág-árok waterfall with a cavity opening visible behind the waterfall. The study by László Schőnviszky published in the 1937 issue of Turisták Lapja states that the two chamber‑like openings under the Holdvilág-árok waterfall are completely artificial and were formerly searched in them for coal.

The book published in 1937 and written by Gyula Szeghalmy mentions that there are excellent caves in the Csikóvári Hills group above Pomáz and Szentendre, in the amphitheater-like basin of Holdvilág-árok. From one of the rock walls forming the basin, which is 20–25 m high, the stream water flows down. This fall is made particularly interesting by the fact that the entrance of one smaller cave, about 25–30 m long, opens exactly behind the waterfall. If someone enters the cave on a sunny summer day and looks through the falling water curtain, it is as if forest fairies’ delicate, fairy‑tale‑like dew veil were floating before them. Through the misty haze of water droplets sparkling in every colour of the rainbow and filtering like powder, the landscape appears as if it were a picture painted with the finest pastel colours. The landscape and the cave are worth visiting also because of this experience.

The Hungarian Tourist Lexicon, which saw the light of day in 1941, states that Holdvilág-árok has two corridor‑like caves. According to a piece published in the 1943 edition of Barlangvilág, there are two corridor‑like caves in the chasm of Holdvilág-árok. During rain, water falls with a 15‑metre waterfall into Holdvilág-árok and at that time the view through the water curtain from one cave, which lies directly in the waterfall’s line of fall, is very interesting. The caves are allegedly artificial excavations, but this is not certain. It is possible, however, that there originally was a natural cave there, which was later further enlarged. This is also likely because not far from this place there is indeed a cave, the Weislich Cave.

According to the travel guide published in 1948, written by István Szegő, moving upward in the Holdvilág trench, in the trench's rockless area (on the right side) there are two artificial cave passages about 20 m long each. One of them, which is in the waterfall's line of fall, is very interesting to look at. There is also a third cave in the rockless area, but it has collapsed and therefore is not visible. In Ottó Kadić's 1952 manuscript it is mentioned that the two pit-like artificial openings under the Holdvilág trench waterfall are of artificial origin. In the past coal was searched for here.