Adamkó Péter - Dénes György - Leél-Őssy Szabolcs: The Caves of Buda - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1992)
Caves open to the püblic The cave of the Gellért-hegy Let us start with the hollow of the Pest Hill of the Middle Ages. The cave of the Gellért hegy, also known today as Rock Chapel, opens in the hillside rising above the Danube bank. This large hollow with a wide entrance originally consisted of a single large chamber along with two side chambers. The river flows beneath it and hot springs rise at the foot of the hill. (That is the site of the present day Gellért Hotel and Spa.) The springs yielding thermal water all year round, the river with its plentiful supply of fish, the surrounding forests with their wildlife attracted primitive man. The cave itself provided an excellent dwelling. This is perhaps one of the most ancient primitive dwellings in the Hungarian capital. During the second half of the 19th century and in the early 1900’s, there was an old residential house under the arched entrance of the cave. It was not demolished until 1913 when the adjacent Spa-Hotel was built. In 1926 a chapel was erected inside the hollow in the cliff and the interior was enlarged by adding a corridor and a small chamber. Since then the cave has been called Rock Chapel. After World War II the cave entrance was walled up. In the early 1960’s a hydrological research station was established there. A borehole was drilled from within the cave and hit another cavity sumptuously covered with hydrothermal mineral formations only a few meters below the main cave. This suggests that before the hill uplifted and the Danube carved its bed deeper in the valley, the thermal waters found their way relatively higher in the rock layers. The newly discovered cavity as well as the cave known since ancient times were formed by the same activity of thermal waters. In 1990 the chapel was re-established within the artificial innermost chamber. The gaping entrance facing the Danube and the natural hollow was returned to their natural state. 9
