Budapest's Gellérthegyi Barlan (or the Gellért hill cave) is a cave turned into hermit's hideout, turned into peasant home, turned into a church, and then closed and sealed behind a concrete wall by the communists. Oh, and the communists also executed the head monk.
But fortunately, the concrete wall was taken down and the church reopened on August 27, 1989.
Today the church can be visited by paying a small fee for the ticket. The main church rooms themselves are inside the hill in the cave, but there is also an attached monastery, Pálos kolostor, built in front of the cliff.
The church is on Gellért hill, and there's a great path leads from the church up to the top where you can find the Citadella fortress. The walk up is much recommended, with great views over the river and Budapest. But the fortress itself is sadly closed at the moment due to the structure being unstable.
More pictures:
A window at the cave church:
The entrance:
View from the top:
The additional churches on the side of the hill:
See all the caving stories at planetcaver.net! Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.
This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.
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