Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Steps underground
lights as early as 1927. The drastic multiplication of the combined length of its known passages, which was a mere one kilometre before 1980, was due to the fact that a strong draught prompted the starting of a bore from the cavity known as the Theatre Chamber. Thanks to the unflagging and coordinated efforts of the Imre Gábor Bekey Potholers’ Team, this most successful undertaking of Hungary's speleologists has added more than 14 kilometres to the entire length of the cave. After it was linked to the Mátyás Hill Cave, the combined length of the system has grown to nearly 20 kilometres. The reconstruction of the visitors’ section was completed in 2001. That was when the stairs in the Theatre Chamber, the largest cavity open to the public, as well as the visitors' favourite, the "Chickens' Ladder,” were replaced with modern, stainless-steel stairways. Further stairs were installed in the "Passageway of Fivers” near the new exit opening from the quarry of the cave, which is how visitors can now cover the five-hundred metre route inside without having to retrace their steps anywhere. An arsenal of stairs in the belly of Castle Hill Looking back on an eventful history, the system of caves in the Castle Hill was formed in the crumbling layers of yellow Buda marl lying beneath the freshwater ■ Stain in the belly oh Cadtle Hill 84
