The Cave Church (Sziklatemplom)
Why is it significant?
Climb the few steps on the side of the hill opposite the Gellért and you reach an entrance carved straight into the rock. Step inside, and the noise of the city disappears. Rough cave walls, candles, a cool damp smell, and an altar set deep in the hillside.
Key Facts
| Place | The Cave Church (Sziklatemplom) |
|---|---|
| Address | Szent Gellért rakpart 1, 1114 Budapest, Hungary |
| Geo Coordinates | 47.48490, 19.05220 |
| Part of Walk | Hot Springs and a Hilltop: Budapest's Tabán, Gellért Hill and the Thermal Baths |
| Generated | Generated |
Climb the few steps on the side of the hill opposite the Gellért and you reach an entrance carved straight into the rock. Step inside, and the noise of the city disappears. Rough cave walls, candles, a cool damp smell, and an altar set deep in the hillside.
The cave was once known as Saint Ivan's Cave, after a hermit who, the legend says, lived here and healed the sick with the warm water of the springs below. Like the springs of the baths, the cave itself was shaped by water moving through the rock over many thousands of years, and the hot springs of the Gellért still rise only a few steps away.
In the 1920s, Hungarian pilgrims who had visited Lourdes were inspired by its grotto and decided to make a chapel here. The church was consecrated in 1926 and entrusted to the Pauline Fathers, the only Catholic order ever founded in Hungary, back in the thirteenth century. The monks extended the caves and built a neo-Gothic monastery against the hillside beside them. The order takes its name from Saint Paul the First Hermit, and its monks wear white habits... a fitting choice for a church that began as a hermit's cave.
Then came the communist years. In 1951 the state security police raided the monastery and arrested the monks. The prior, Ferenc Vezér, was sentenced to death and executed, and the others were imprisoned. The entrance to the cave was sealed with a thick concrete wall, and for almost four decades, people walking past saw only grey concrete in the side of the hill.
In 1989, as the regime collapsed, the wall was broken open, and the church was returned to the Paulines. It is one of the most quietly powerful places in Budapest: a church hidden inside a hill, closed by force, and opened again by time. Now come out into the light, cross to the river, and step onto the green bridge with the mythical birds on top.