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

Turkish cellars, wells and caverns - the Castle Caves of Buda

sible from the courtyard of the Town Hall, had preserved more of their medieval appearance than they do today. The pits connecting the cavities to the upper cellars were in evidence, and the side walls were not yet covered with brick walls. In 1936 another two chambers were added to the system, and a "columbarium’' was furnished with the animal and human stones found when the chamber labelled No. V at the time (beneath No. 9 Szentháromság utca) was being cleaned. By 1942 further additions had resulted in the extension of the entire length of the public sections to nearly three hundred metres.

The Castle Hill Committee exhibited a Speleological Collection in the upper cellars connected to the access holes. Room 1 of this quality exhibition introduced the geologic column of Castle Hill together with the mineralogical and palaeontologic finds characteristic of the area. Photos and maps of Budapest’s caves were exhibited in Room II, while Room III featured relics documenting the presence of prehistoric man in Hungary. In Room IV visitors could study the major caves of the country. The entire collection perished during the siege of the Castle in World War II.

While being adapted for the purposes of tourism, the first steps were taken to prepare the caves, with the support of the ministries involved, to serve as air-raid shelters in an emergency. Increasing in significance as the war progressed, these alterations eventually swallowed up the Castle Hill Cave, too. Having expropriated it in May 1943, the municipality of Budapest connected the cave to the series of tidied-up rock cellars beneath Úri utca, Tárnok utca, Dísz tér and Országház utca. The emergency exits of this four-kilometre labyrinthine system of caves opened at the bottom of the Castle walls. As part of these defence-related alterations, a military hospital was installed in the section lying below Lovas út and Szentháromság utca. A Budapest daily reported on the event: "The architectural plans of the hospital were made by Dr. László Mészáros, who worked wonders with the help of engineer László Péchy. Their work is characterised by rock-solid static stability and perfect insulation, as well as optimum utilisation of the spaces available. [...] The three major wards are supplemented with back-up wards besides operating theatres and an out-patient department. Head surgeon Dr. István Kovács is assisted by three more physicians detailed here permanently, who are joined by another forty doctors and hand-picked red-cross nurses working in shifts." Thousands of people, including the last German detachments holed up here before breaking out of the Castle, sought shelter in the caves during the siege of the Castle.

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