N. Kósa Judit - Szablyár Péter: Underground Pest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)
"Daddy how goes in…" - artificial caves in the Zoo
The bottoms of the dual pools were 33.88 metres, their spill ports 41.88 metres above the zero point of the Danube. The pools were made of brick with lime and cement used as binding material. Segmented by brick columns and covered with brick vaults, the interior of the pools look like that of a cathedral. Each of the two reservoirs has a capacity of 10,800 cubic metres, their combined capacity exceeding that of the 17,800 cubic metre reservoir inside Gellért Hill. The construction, next to the pools, of a reinforced concrete water tower and a pump house, which provided the appropriate pressure to get water to flats on upper storeys, opened up new prospects of development in the life of Kőbánya. "Daddy how goes in..."- artificial caves in the Zoo With the dolomite chain behind Gellért Hill having knocked against the drift beds filling the bottom of the Alföld Basin, the Pest side of the capital is not characterised by the presence of rock formations. Thus the small cliffs of the Budapest Zoo cannot fail to catch the eye of Pest’s inhabitants walking here or travelling on a train departing from the Western Station. Although the Cave Cinema or the underground lair of a few carnivores suggest that the rocks are hollow, few realise just how large the subterranean holes underneath the concrete shell are. Founded by János Xantus and opened in 1865, the Zoo, which had gone bankrupt by the turn of the century, was appropriated by the municipality in 1907. Inviting the participation of noted zoologists, botanists, architects and dedicated city councillors, the municipality set up a "Committee on Zoo Reconstruction” to oversee the creation of a zoo worthy of the country's capital. Planning was coordinated by Academician Dr. Adolf Lendl, who went on a tour of Europe’s modern zoos with his associates. The designs, which were based on their findings, were submitted to the capital's aldermen in April 1909. At the heart of Lendl's philosophy was the principle of presenting the animals and plants to the public in their natural habitat. His model was the "dry ditch" system used in the Hamburg Zoo, where Karl Hagenbeck had built deep and thus safe spaces between animals and visitors. Following the Hamburg example, architect Gyula Végh designed two groups of cliffs, whose twelve 1.200 scale models were made by sculptor Gyula Benke. To make the surface of the rocks similar to their models in nature, their makers turned for advice to the experts of the Hungarian Royal Geological Institute. 34
