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

From the Muddy Baths to Szent Gellért tér

■ The Aragonite Cave at the moment of its discovery

alluvia from the surface. The filling was then washed out, which was followed by other periods of filling up; in the process, a characteristic, reddish layer of clay with a limonite content was deposited. It was partly on this that the snow-white calcium-carbonate coating of the walls was later deposited, after which the cave was named upon its discovery. Unfortunately, the coating has deteriorated since the cave was first discovered, but it is still a captivating sight. The deterioration of the calcite layer was greatly facilitated by the dehydration of the crystal coating following the drying-up of the cave, which had originally been filled with water. The adverse effect of this was worsened when the cave was connected to the Gellért Drift. What survives of the once white formations in the now literally powder-dry cave is covered with a blanket of grey dust.

Several plans and ideas have been born in the past thirty years or so concerning how to utilise and open the cave to the public. Of the ideas put forward (such as a cave bath, cave-therapy facilities, a wine cellar or some other