N. Kósa Judit - Szablyár Péter: Underground Buda - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)

From the Muddy Baths to Szent Gellért tér

struction work started in 1925 and carried out to plans by Kálmán Lux, the natural cavity was enlarged by explosions. The shrine was consecrated on 23 May 1926, while the lower chapel, which was to serve as a pantheon of Hungarian-born saints, was opened to the public at Whitsun in 1931. Behind it on the hillside, a Pauline cloister was consecrated in 1934. The monastery was connected with the shrine, which had by then been named Rock Chapel.

There was an emergency hospital billeted here during the siege of Budapest at the end of World War II, the cave resuming its function as a chapel after the siege. In March 1951, the Rock Chapel was closed together with the Pauline cloister and its entrance was sealed with a thick concrete wall. Having stood empty for years, the system of cavities was taken over by the Water Management Institute. The institute arranged a karst-hydrological laboratory in it under the supervision of the prominent hydrologist Dr. Hubert Kessler for the regular observation of the karst springs in the area. After the laboratory was dismantled, the caves, still unique in their atmosphere, were used for storage purposes.

Having had its property reinstated in 1989, the Roman Catholic Church restored the Rock Chapel, which was consecrated again in 1992. The place

■ Cave-dwelling in the entrance to the St. Ivan'i Cave