The Kőbánya cellar system or cellar system of Kőbánya (; in Hungarian: ''kőbányai pincerendszer'', "cellar system of Kőbánya", or ''kőbányai alagútrendszer'', "tunnel system of Kőbánya"), sometimes known to non-Hungarians simply as the Kőbánya Mine, or the Kobanya Mine, is an extensive network of subterranea, or underground spaces, in the 10th district of
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
(Kőbánya), in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
. It is considered to be the largest cellar complex in the country. The complex as a whole started as an underground
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...
in a
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
-growing area of present-day Kőbánya in the Middle Ages. Later
wineries
A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...
and beer breweries were established on the premises and they continued to use some of the underground spaces. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the dimensions of the complex enabled it to be used as a covert
aircraft engine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...
assembly plant and a civilian hideout. Since 2008, Kőbánya Asset Manager Jsc. organizes free guided tours annually (during
Saint László
Ladislaus I ( hu, László, hr, Ladislav, sk, Ladislav, pl, Władysław; 1040 – 29 July 1095), also known as Saint Ladislas, was King of Hungary from 1077 and King of Croatia from 1091. He was the second son of King Béla I of Hungary and ...
Days), which introduce visitors to both the complex and the Havas Villa (erroneously also known as the Dreher Villa), one of the most notable properties connected to it. The underground complex is one of the locations that are participating in the
European Heritage Days
European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, ''Europe: a common heritage''. The annual programme offers o ...
.
The floor area of the complex is variously estimated to be somewhere between and the combined length of the tunnels is estimated to be around . Corridors wide and halls high are common in it. The deepest part is approximately under the ground surface. The nature of limestone makes the spaces of the complex moist and
mold
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal seco ...
y, and some parts are actually heavily flooded by groundwater. Currently the bulk of the tunnel system is the property of the Kőbánya district government (through its company Kőbánya Asset Manager Jsc., ''Kőbányai Vagyonkezelő Zrt.''), a small portion is still owned by the Dreher Beer Breweries, who still actively uses some of the cellar spaces, and other small areas are in use by wineries. As of 2007, the Kőbánya tunnel system was not under architectural protection. The complex is sometimes referred to as an "underground city" or as an "underground world".
Name
In Hungarian, the tunnel complex is known only as the
circumlocution
Circumlocution (also called circumduction, circumvolution, periphrasis, kenning, or ambage) is the use of an unnecessarily large number of words to express an idea. It is sometimes necessary in communication (for example, to work around lexical gap ...
s ''kőbányai pincerendszer'' ( cellar system of Kőbánya), or ''kőbányai alagútrendszer'' (tunnel system of Kőbánya), using no capitalization as per established orthography rules. The complex is also often
metonymically
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
referred to as the "Dreher cellars", the "Dreher cellar system", or the "brewery/beer cellars of Kőbánya", by association with the Dreher Beer Breweries which was a main user of it. This is an example of ''
pars pro toto
''Pars pro toto'' (, ), , is a figure of speech where the name of a ''portion'' of an object, place, or concept is used or taken to represent its entirety. It is distinct from a merism, which is a reference to a whole by an enumeration of parts; ...
'', as the brewery never came close to using the full extent of the complex.
The otherwise unnamed
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
quarry sites which formed the network of tunnels gave the later municipal district,
Kőbánya
Kőbánya (literally: Quarry, ) is the 10th district of Budapest () and one of the largest by territory. It is located in southeast Pest, easily accessible from the downtown by Metro 3, whose terminus is named '' Kőbánya-Kispest''.
It has ...
, its name, and ''kőbánya'' is in fact the sole Hungarian word for "quarry". Non-Hungarian individuals (especially divers) or media sometimes call the cellar system the "Kőbánya Mine", the "Kobanya Mine" or even the "Kobayna Mine" (a clear misspelling), as if this was the actual name of the mining sites, but technically speaking this is a
misnomer
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the name ...
(and a case of ''
totum pro parte
''Totum pro parte'' is Latin for "the whole for a part"; it refers to a kind of metonymy. The plural is ''tota pro partibus'', "wholes for parts". In a context of language, it means something is named after something of which it is only a part (o ...
''), as the sites never had ''Kőbánya'' as a formal name in any manner, and so the capitalized noun ''Kőbánya'' can only refer to the 10th district of Budapest in Hungarian. The only semantically correct way to refer to the Kőbánya quarry sites is to use the redundant form ''kőbányai kőbányák'' (literally, "the quarries of Quarry").
History
Limestone mining
The tunnel system originated as an underground
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
quarry in an area which was known as ''Kőér'' (roughly "Stone Vein") in present-day Kőbánya. The area's name appears as ''Kewer'' (or ''Kőér'' in modern Hungarian orthography) in a
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
written by
Béla IV
Béla may refer to:
* Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater
* Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name
See also
* Bela (disambiguation)
* Belá (disambiguation)
* Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá, derived from ''bílá'' (''whit ...
(in which he donated a piece of land to the city of Pest), a name of a high hill. This evidence suggests that the area was used as a source of limestone from at least the 13th century, but it is likely that the area provided limestone even in the
Antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
. The exact variant is known as Sarmatian limestone, which was formed from the deposits of the
Pannonian Sea
The Pannonian Sea was a shallow ancient lake, where the Pannonian Basin in Central Europe is now. The Pannonian Sea existed from about 10 Ma (million years ago) until 1 Ma, during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, when marine sediments were dep ...
in the Central European ''Sarmatian'' stage of the upper-middle
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
era, approximately 11.6–12.7 million years ago.
The ''Kőér'' quarry's activity have risen significantly in the early 17th century, and then experienced even more heightened output in the 19th century, as it provided limestone for the construction (or renovation) of some of the most prominent buildings in present-day Budapest;
* the
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
,
* the
Széchenyi Chain Bridge
The Széchenyi Chain Bridge ( hu, Széchenyi lánchíd ) is a chain bridge that spans the River Danube between Buda and Pest, the western and eastern sides of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Designed by English engineer William Tierney Clark a ...
,
* the
Citadella
The Citadella is the fortification located upon the top of Gellért Hill in Budapest, Hungary. ''Citadella'' is the Hungarian word for citadel, a kind of fortress. The word is exclusively used by other languages to refer to the Gellért Hill c ...
,
* the
Fisherman's Bastion
The Halászbástya () or Fisherman's Bastion is one of the best known monuments in Budapest, located near the Buda Castle, in the 1st district of Budapest. It is one of the most important tourist attractions due to the unique panorama of Budapest f ...
,
* the
Matthias Church
, other name =
, native_name = hu, Mátyás-templom
, native_name_lang =
, image = Matthias Church, Budapest, 2017.jpg
, imagesize =
, imagelink =
, imagealt ...
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...
's building,
* the
Margaret Bridge
Margaret Bridge or Margit híd (sometimes ''Margit Bridge'') is a three-way bridge in Budapest, Hungary, connecting Buda and Pest across the Danube and linking Margaret Island to the banks. It is the second-northernmost and second-oldest publi ...
villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
s of
Andrássy Avenue
The House of Andrássy is the name of a Hungarian noble family of very ancient lineage that was prominent in Hungarian history. The full family name is ''Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka''. ''Csíkszentkirály'' is a town in modern- ...
.
It is likely that the name of ''Fehér út'' (White Road) was the result of the presence of white limestone dust, as the road was the main route of transportation from the quarry sites to the Pest construction sites.
Winemaking and beer brewing
Even when the quarry was still in active production, routine mining practices,
cave-in
A cave-in is a collapse of a geologic formation, mine or structure which may occur during mining, tunneling, or steep-walled excavation such as trenching. Geologic structures prone to spontaneous cave-ins include alvar, tsingy and other limes ...
s (due to the inadequate mining techniques used) as well as the
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
penetration caused parts of it to be abandoned continuously. Above the quarry there were large
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
s from the 17th century on, and so
wineries
A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...
and wine merchants started to use the abandoned sections, making them more akin to purpose-built
wine cellar
A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. ...
s.
While winemaking ceased in the area because of the large-scale European "phylloxera plague" of the second half of the 19th century, beer breweries also settled in the area to exploit the tunnels.Péter Schmiedt was the first to establish his Kőbánya Beer House Company (''Kőbányai Serház Társaság'') on the premises in 1844. The company continued to use some of the underground spaces as
fermentation
Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...
cellars, and drilled deep wells to exploit the limestone-filtered, clean groundwater under the quarry tunnels for beer production.
The Austrian businessman and brewer Anton Dreher Sr. (known in Hungary as Antal Dréher) bought Schmiedt's company and its related assets in 1862 to eliminate competition and to expand his Austrian brewery company, Klein-Schwechat Brewing House (''Klein-Schwechater Brauhaus''), and continued to use portions of the underground spaces as cellars. The brewery site became known simply as the Steinbruch Brewery (''Brauerei Steinbruch''), reflecting the German name of Kőbánya. In the following years, Dreher's son, Anton Jr. bought up and integrated the neighboring rival breweries that were also settled in the vicinity. In 1907, this Kőbánya site became an independent company, led by Dreher's youngest grandson, Eugene (Jenő) Dreher, as Antal Dreher's Kőbánya Beer Brewery (''Dreher Antal Kőbányai Serfőzdéje''). The Dreher family's companies were the most significant developer and producer of
pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale-to-golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.
The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing ...
beer up until
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. In the 1920s, the brewery controlled 70% of the beer market in Hungary. In the 1930s, the Dreher Brewery Combine have already acquired almost all of the neighboring breweries: the Haggenmacher Brewery, the First Hungarian Stock Brewery, and the Capital City Brewery, leaving only the Civic Brewery independent.
Meanwhile, due to the general instability of the tunnel system, limestone mining was officially banned in 1890, although the system was still used for acquiring limestone as late as 1911 to repair the Reformed Church of Kecskemét, which was damaged in a 5.6 Mw earthquake the same year.
World War II
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
aircraft engine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...
heavy fighter
A heavy fighter is a historic category of fighter aircraft produced in the 1930s and 1940s, designed to carry heavier weapons, and/or operate at longer ranges than light fighter aircraft. To achieve performance, most heavy fighters were twin-eng ...
(designated as Me 210Ca-1 in the
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
), which were to be either delivered to or fully assembled in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The workers were able to produce more than 200 engines until production was relocated into Germany as
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
troops came close to Budapest. Other, smaller aircraft factories also used the complex during the war.
Throughout the war, especially during the
siege of Budapest
The Siege of Budapest or Battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet Union, Soviet and Kingdom of Romania, Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital (political), capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the b ...
, the complex also acted as a shelter for civilians. At least one specific hall, which was referred to as a "chapel" (''kápolna'') by the miners, served as a place of worship to hold
Sunday mass
Mass is the main Eucharistic liturgy, liturgical service in many forms of Western Christianity. The term ''Mass'' is commonly used in the Catholic Church, in the Western Rite Orthodoxy, Western Rite Orthodox, in Old Catholic Church, Old Cathol ...
es during the siege.
Postwar abandonment and cave-ins
All of the abandoned tunnel system of the quarry and the Dreher Brewery cellar system (along with the Dreher family's company) was
nationalized
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
in March 1948. In the next year, the brewery was united with other nationalized companies as well as being renamed, and the premises became known as Site No. 1 of the Kőbánya Beer Brewery (''Kőbányai Sörgyár 1. számú telephely'') in the communist era. After the transition to
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
, in 1992, the now-
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
company acquired the rights from the Austrian legal successor of the original Dreher company to use the Dreher name again, and became Dreher Beer Breweries (''Dreher Sörgyárak'').
Between the 1950s and the early 1970s the mining tunnels and the central mine courtyards (''mélyudvar'') of the Óhegy area were filled with
construction debris
Construction waste or debris is any kind of debris from the construction process. Different government agencies have clear definitions. For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA defines construction and demolition materia ...
, meters of communal waste, and earth to rehabilitate land, which then gave place to the Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Park, today's Óhegy Park.
In the evening hours of 6 June 2004, a cave-in occurred in the park, killing a 62-year-old man; the victim had fallen into the wide and or deep pit that formed under him. The victim died because of the toxic gases of the rotting waste, not from the fall. This caused a roughly one hectare part of the park to be fenced off citing soil stability issues.
Even before this incident, the park had at least two minor cave-ins. The problem was finally mitigated in 2012 (involving the help of a GHH LF 4.1 mine front loader), costing the district government 90 million
forints
The forint ( sign Ft; code HUF) is the currency of Hungary. It was formerly divided into 100 fillér, but fillér coins are no longer in circulation. The introduction of the forint on 1 August 1946 was a crucial step in the post-World War II sta ...
( US dollars), and on 5 December 2012 the fence was removed and the area was restored to the public.
Rediscovery and reappropriation
Currently the bulk of the tunnel system is the property of the Kőbánya district government (through its company Kőbánya Asset Manager Jsc., ''Kőbányai Vagyonkezelő Zrt.''), a small portion is still owned by the Dreher Beer Breweries, which still actively uses some of the cellar spaces. Other small areas of the complex are in use by wineries. The most prominent human activity in the past decades within the tunnel complex was the commercial growing of
edible mushroom
Edible mushrooms are the fleshy and edible fruit bodies of several species of macrofungi (fungi which bear fruiting structures that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye). They can appear either below ground (hypogeous) or above ground ...
s in some sections, generally in corridors and smaller halls. However this practice was outlawed by
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
regulations and so mushroom production ceased in the latter parts of the 2000s. Starting from 2007, the complex hosts guided walking tours as well as diving tours, cycling and running competitions and other recreational events.
In 2012, the complex was used as testing grounds for the capabilities of the portable REGARD Muontomograph by a group of Hungarian scientists and engineers from
Eötvös Loránd University
Eötvös Loránd University ( hu, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE) is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Hung ...
Budapest University of Technology and Economics
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( hu, Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is the most significant university of technology in Hungary and is considered the world's oldes ...
, to demonstrate the use of muon tomography in geophysical surveying of underground structures.
On 21 February 2014, a physical
geocache
Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", at specific l ...
was hidden in the tunnel complex.
In March 2015, the Hamburg Fire and Rescue Service visited the complex as part of their "4. LLG 2.1" training course, in the EU's Exchange of Experts initiative.
In 2015, the record-holder Austrian
freediver
Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.
Besides the limits of breath- ...
Christian Redl
Christian Redl (born 20 April 1948) is a German actor and singer.
Life
Christian Redl is the son of a teacher. He grew up in Kassel, trained from 1967 to 1970 at the Schauspielschule Bochum and was then engaged in theatres in Wuppertal, Frankf ...
dived in the flooded parts of the complex for a
GoPro
GoPro, Inc. (marketed as GoPro and sometimes stylized as GoPRO) is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. It manufactures action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video-editing software. Founded as Woodman La ...
promotional video.
The S1 Project and future plans
In the past decades, the Kőbánya district government developed ideas about the future use of the Dreher Brewery premises and the tunnel complex under it, such as operating a
dark ride
A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain Animatronics, animation, sound, music and Special effect#Live special effects, special e ...
in the tunnels. In 2005, the district government has envisioned a project which would turn the premises into a cultural and entertainment venue with a
theme park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
, this became known as the ''S1 Project''. The code "S1" refers to the historical brewery premises; as "beer brewery" is ''sörgyár'' or ''sörfőzde'', and the premises were known as the no. 1 production site of the brewery. The project anticipates that the premises would contain a musical stage, an event hall, galleries, studios, clubs, coffee houses, restaurants, a beer museum, a mass transit stop, and hotels among other things. The concept also calls for the construction of apartment buildings in the area which would provide thousands of apartments. The development of the project would involve using the tunnel system in some form, possibly being opened up by artificial
ravine
A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. The Kőbánya Asset Manager Jsc. was in talks with Austrian historian
Günter Bischof
Günter Bischof (born 6 October 1953 in Mellau, Vorarlberg) is an Austrian-American historian and university professor. A specialist in 20th century diplomatic history, and a graduate of University of New Orleans, Innsbruck University and Harvard U ...
, whose involvement resulted in three project plans submitted by four architectural firms; Erick van Egeraat Architects (EEA), Zoboki Design & Architecture (ZDA), Sporaarchitects, and Naos Architecture.
The preparation of the S1 Project is being done by the Kőbánya Asset Manager Jsc. in the framework of Budapest's medium-term development program, the Podmaniczky Program, with the financial support of the EU. The project was a part of the EU's
brownfield
In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...
rehabilitation program
MISTER
''Mister'', usually written in its contracted form ''Mr.'' or ''Mr'', is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title 'Mr' derived from earlier ...
(Military and Industrial SiTEs Reuse) as well as the
Interreg
Interreg is a series of programmes to stimulate cooperation between regions in and out of the European Union (EU), funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The first Interreg started in 1989. Interreg IV covered the period 2007–2013. I ...
III B-level CADSES (Central European–Adriatic–Danubian–South-Eastern European Space) cooperation, but did not gather enough interest from potential investors. In 2009, the cost of the realization was estimated at 120 billion
forints
The forint ( sign Ft; code HUF) is the currency of Hungary. It was formerly divided into 100 fillér, but fillér coins are no longer in circulation. The introduction of the forint on 1 August 1946 was a crucial step in the post-World War II sta ...
( US dollars), while the S1 Project area was valued at 5 billion forints ( dollars). In 2012, more than two-thirds of the involved
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
was the property of the district government, with the remainder being the property of a few private companies. Administering the complex costs the Kőbánya district government around 70–80 million forints (– dollars) annually.
Structure
General characteristics
While intricate, the Kőbánya complex can be divided into two general, interconnected areas: a larger, somewhat more
mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
-like part which is in district ownership, and a smaller, more cellar-like part which is in private ownership, although usually these are considered as one single entity in public discourse, since they had the same origins.
The tunnel system was originally a
slope mine
Slope mining is a method of accessing valuable geological material, such as coal or ore. A sloping access shaft travels downwards towards desired material. Slope mines differ from shaft and drift mines, which access resources by tunneling strai ...
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
production. The shape of the passages and excavation halls has a
comb
A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...
-like pattern. The complex has multiple levels within, and (due to
cave-in
A cave-in is a collapse of a geologic formation, mine or structure which may occur during mining, tunneling, or steep-walled excavation such as trenching. Geologic structures prone to spontaneous cave-ins include alvar, tsingy and other limes ...
s, tunnel closures and floodings, along with the poor mining documentation) its full extent is not fully surveyed or mapped. Even so, it is considered to be the largest cellar complex in Hungary.
The floor area of the complex is estimated to be either around , or . The combined length of the tunnels is estimated to be or , according to different sources and estimations. Corridors wide and "church-like" halls high are common in it, with some of the halls reaching sizes of in height and in width. Some of the taller halls were later divided into two levels with
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
slabs. There is at least three halls there are referred to as "chapels" (''kápolna''), these are named after major world religions. One such chapel hall was originally an open mine court which was covered with brick arches. The average depth of the tunnels under the ground surface is around . The deepest part of any tunnel or hall is approximately , measured from the ground surface above it to the bottom surface of the tunnel. However, one of the flooded machinery halls of the Dreher Brewery reaches into a depth of roughly , but it is unclear if it could be considered as part of the tunnel complex. There are ventilation shafts above some of the tunnels, these are in diameter and generally long. The average density of rock around the complex is .
The air temperature is around (according to other sources, , or ) throughout the complex.
The complex originally had dozens of entry locations, some of them are:
* Bánya Street entry (Bánya Street 35–37), the current main entry point
* Halom Street entry
* Havas Villa (aka Dreher Villa)
Despite being abandoned, the complex still has working lighting, including some underwater
floodlight
A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions. More focused kinds are often used as a stage ...
s installed in flooded areas to enhance diving.
Subnetworks
The whole complex that is often referred to as the "Kőbánya cellar system" is in fact a grouping of one large, intricate tunnel network with two main parts, and a few isolated, smaller tunnel systems. These are largely under three well-defined areas of Kőbánya: ''Óhegy'' (Old Hill), ''Újhegy'' (New Hill), and the Dreher Brewery premises, now known as the "S1 Project area" or just "S1 area".
The main subnetwork, the Dreher/S1 Project network, starts at the intersection of Kőrösi Csoma Road, Kolozsvári Street and Jászberényi Road (known as the "Tight Corner"; ''Éles-sarok''), and continues along Jászberényi Road and Maglódi Road as far as Téglavető Street. This part of the subnetwork is more than long, and it is connected to the other part under the vicinity of the Vineyard Guard Tower (''Csősztorony'') next to Óhegy Park. The second part is surrounded by Harmat Street, Ihász Street, Halom Street, Bebek Road and Halom End. The cellar floor area under the Dreher premises is around , with a combined passage length of . The depth from surface to the cellar grounds is about . According to different sources, the temperature is about or .
One of the biggest isolated tunnel systems is the one which is under Óhegy Park (the former Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Park), along Szlávy Street, facing the end of Száraz Street. Some of it were filled with construction debris, meters of communal waste, and earth to rehabilitate land. This network is almost long and deep. It was roughly long before the cave-in mitigation works done in 2012. Sources also give the following post-mitigation characteristics: the tunnel system has a floor area of , with tunnels wide and high; the thickness of rock and soil above the tunnels is between . The air temperature is around . The Óhegy tunnels were continuously reinforced since 1996.
Two, way smaller tunnel "systems" are located alongside Algyógyi Street and Kocka Street, as well as at the intersection of Kőér Street and Petrőczy Street.
Flooded areas and wells
Due to the
hygroscopic
Hygroscopy is the phenomenon of attracting and holding water molecules via either absorption or adsorption from the surrounding environment, which is usually at normal or room temperature. If water molecules become suspended among the substance ...
(water absorbing) nature of limestone and the presence of
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
, some of the deeper parts of the complex are permanently flooded, and even the unflooded parts have moist,
mold
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal seco ...
y walls and flowing or pooling
pit water
Pit water, mine water or mining water is water that collects in a mine and which has to be brought to the surface by water management methods in order to enable the mine to continue working.
Origin
Although all water that enters pit workings ori ...
. The flooding is generally present around the wells that were used by the Dreher Brewery. Some flooded areas are deeper than from the surface of the water, these could only be accessed by
technical
Technical may refer to:
* Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle
* Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data
* Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...
,
cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...
, or wreck divers. There are four areas of flooding and 5 diving spots within, of which one does not require technical/cave/wreck diving qualifications and can be dived with only OWD qualifications.
The flood areas as identified by their original Dreher well (''kút'') names:
* ''Csíráztató kút'' (Sprouter Well), approximate depth:
* ''Kert kút'' (Garden Well), approximate depth:
* ''Lyukas kút'' (Hole Well), approximate depth:
* ''Park kút'' (Park Well), approximate depth: – one of the two diving spots requires only OWD qualifications
Other, unflooded wells include ''Champagne kút'' (Champagne Well) and ''Hipó kút'' ( Hypo Well).
The water temperature is around , or according to other sources,, or , and it is generally very clean and clear (aside from small floating debris from decaying equipment and considerable
silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
deposits in some halls), providing good visibility for navigating around with flashlights.
Current uses
From time to time, the complex or the Dreher brewery buildings are used by
filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
s and other artists for their projects, including
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
s and
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
s. The most notable examples are the 2015 American
action comedy
Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre.
Film
The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of actio ...
film ''Spy'', which had its opening scenes shot in the complex, and the 1989 Hungarian
art film
An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...
''Meteo'', which features the subterranean spaces in a
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...
manner in some scenes.
The complex hosts or hosted sporting and recreational events such as:
* guided visitor tours
** public tours organized by Kőbánya Asset Manager Jsc. (annually since 2008, during
Saint László
Ladislaus I ( hu, László, hr, Ladislav, sk, Ladislav, pl, Władysław; 1040 – 29 July 1095), also known as Saint Ladislas, was King of Hungary from 1077 and King of Croatia from 1091. He was the second son of King Béla I of Hungary and ...
Days in June)
** private tours organized by the
urban exploration
Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inter ...
and urban architecture blog ''Falanszter'' (roughly monthly)
* the ''MOFÉM Underworld Kupa'' (MOFÉM Underworld Cup) bicycle competition, part of the ''Mountainbike Challenge'' organized by Merkapt Maraton Sport Center (annually since 2010)
* the ''BBU Föld Alatti Futás'' (BBU Underground Run) and the ''Halloween Run'' events organized by BBU Organizing Bureau (2015)
* organized diving tours, with both open-water (with OWD or AOWD qualifications) and penetration/overhead diving, organized by Titán Diver Club and School (TBK Divers), Aquanaut, and Paprika Divers
Portrayal and study
Multiple television and
webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...
documentaries
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
: 세계테마기행 - 헝가리) with
Han Soo-yeon
Han Soo-yeon ( born April 24, 1983) is a South Korean actress best known for her roles in Korean dramas, '' Pure Love'' (2013) and ''Love in the Moonlight'' (2016).
Early life and education
Han was born in South Korea, and moved with her mother ...
, a 4-episode South Korean travel documentary by
EBS EBS may refer to:
Broadcasting
* EBS TV (Ethiopia)
* Educational Broadband Service, US TV service
* Educational Broadcasting System, South Korea
** EBS 1, a South Korean television channel
* Emergency Broadcast System, former US Warning system
...
* ''Láthatatlan Budapest'' (Invisible Budapest), a Hungarian webcast series by
Heti Válasz
''Heti Válasz'' is a conservative online publication in Hungary.
History and profile
''Heti Válasz'' was established in 2001. It is published weekly on Thursdays and is headquartered in Budapest. The magazine covers news on politics, economy a ...
(in season 1, episode 7, ''Egy kisebb várost is el lehetne rejteni Kőbánya alatt'')
* '' Budapest Underground'', a two-part Hungarian TV documentary by Filmdzsungel (in part 1)
* the Hungarian ''BudapestScenes'' webcast series (in the episodes titled ''Az 1944-es kőbányai föld alatti repülőgépgyártás és annak élő szemtanúja, Rezső bácsi'' and ''A kőbányai pincerendszer, mint óvóhely'')
Katalin Zsoldi, a doctoral student of ELTE's Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics made a 3D visualization of various underground structures in Budapest, including the cellar complex.
See also
*
Mines of Paris
The mines of Paris (french: carrières de Paris – "quarries of Paris") comprise a number of abandoned, subterranean mines under Paris, France, connected together by galleries. Three main networks exist; the largest, known as the ("large south ...
*
Chislehurst Caves
Chislehurst Caves are a series of intersecting man-made tunnels and caverns covering some 22 miles (35.4 km) in Chislehurst in southeast London, England. From the mid-13th to early 19th centuries the 'caves' were created from the mining of ...
*
Odessa Catacombs
The Odesa Catacombs are a labyrinth-like network of tunnels (subterranean cavities) located under the city of Odesa and its outskirts in Ukraine, that are mostly (over 90%) the result of stone mining, particularly coquina.Bachynska, O. Odesa Cataco ...
*
Mittelwerk
Mittelwerk (; German for "Central Works") was a German World War II factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flyin ...
*
Project Riese
Riese (; German for "giant") was the code name for a construction project of Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1945. It consisted of seven underground structures in the Owl Mountains and Książ Castle in Lower Silesia, which was then Nazi Germany a ...
*
Weingut I
In 1944 the Third Reich began work on the construction of a partially underground bunker factory codenamed Weingut I (English: Vineyard I) in the forest known as the , slightly to the west of Mühldorf am Inn in Upper Bavaria. Plans for the bunker ...
Underground Project 131
Underground Project 131 () is a system of tunnels in Hubei province constructed in the late 1960s and the early 1970s to accommodate the Chinese People's Liberation Army command headquarters in case of a nuclear war. The facility was never full ...
*
Underground city
An underground city is a series of linked subterranean spaces that may provide a defensive refuge; a place for living, working or shopping; a transit system; mausolea; wine or storage cellars; cisterns or drainage channels; or several of thes ...
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
Origo Origo may refer to:
* ''Origo'' (album), an album by the band Burst
* ''Origo'' (moth), a genus of moth in the family Gelechiidae
*Origo (pragmatics), a concept in pragmatics
* "Origo" (song), the Hungarian representative for the Eurovision Song Co ...