Noszvaj Cave Dwellings

The tuff around Noszvaj is soft enough to be dug with hand tools and firm enough to hold a roof, and people took advantage of that for centuries, cutting cellars, storerooms and whole dwellings into the hillside of the Szoloske wood: rooms with chimneys, windows, benches and niches, some of them arranged as small houses with several chambers, occupied by poorer families into the twentieth century and by some into living memory. A number have been cleared and are shown to visitors, with others left as they were found, half-collapsed in the trees. The village above has a Baroque mansion with painted rooms, and wine cellars cut into the same rock along the lanes.

What you actually see

• Rooms cut into the hillside - chimneys, windows and benches carved in tuff.
• Dwellings lived in into the twentieth century - not ancient, but recent.
• Half-collapsed cellars in the wood - the ones left as found.
• Wine cellars in the village - the same rock used for storage.

When to go

April to October; the site is muddy and dark in winter. Two hours. Guided visits run at set times and are worth taking for the explanation.

Honest expectations

Opening is seasonal and limited, and turning up unannounced often means a locked gate. The path is uneven and slippery after rain. Interpretation is largely in Hungarian. It is a short visit.

Nearby

Eger is south-west; the beehive stones lie east.