Landscapes of wilderness: Aggtelek karst and the Baradla cave

Aggtelek National Park is the fourth national park in Hungary. At the same time, it is the first of our country’s national parks to be created specifically to protect the geological values of the area, i.e. the karst phenomena and the famous stalactite caves. Its underground natural treasures – the caves of Aggtelek and Slovak Karst – were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. A small part of the karst region is located in Hungary, a larger part extends into Slovakia. Of the 712 caves currently known in the area, 273 open from our country. The park is famous for the Baradla Cave, the longest stalactite cave in Central Europe and the longest explored and best known in Hungary, which has been visited for centuries. Known and used by people as a shelter for 7000 years, it was sometimes inhabited, but it only entered the public consciousness as a tourist attraction about 500 years ago.  In Aggtelek National Park, the proximity of the Carpathians means that there are many more high mountain species than the altitude of the area would suggest, making for great hikes on the beautiful forested plains or visits to the Hutsul herd of about 200 horses, centred in Jósvafő.

In the Aggtelek National Park, you can not only hike in the most famous cave, Baradla, but also take part in countless above-the-ground activities, where you can discover the wonders, natural values and cultural heritage of the karst region. The caves, which were formed around 2 million years ago, are extremely varied: most are of river water origin, but there are also caves formed by the dissolving action of water seeping in from the ground (mine caves) and caves formed by water rising from the depths. 

There are several types of daily tours in the park, which can be taken without registration, for a ticket purchased at the ticket office. The easiest and most popular is the “Aggtelek short tour”, where you can spend an hour exploring a world that was discovered by prehistoric man a few thousand years ago. The many black colours, sooty formations and rocks are all reminders of our ancestors. It is characterised by a multitude of huge chambers and formations: hanging stalactites, standing stalactites, stalactite columns, stalactite caves, which capture the imagination of researchers and visitors alike.

For the more intrepid cave explorers, there are tours of varying levels of difficulty, which are only available with prior registration. Here you can visit the Rákóczi, Kossuth and Földvári caves, among others. If you are looking for a real extreme hike, you can take part in the Meteor Cave exploration. This adventure hike is the most difficult of them all, so you need to be fit and have good climbing skills! The tour takes you crawling through rubble blocks, climbing up ladders mounted in shafts to reach the huge Hall of Titans. As well as its size, the stalactites are unrivalled in their richness, with huge stalagmites, beautiful flagstones and you can also admire airy, lightweight curling stalactites as you walk around the hall.

One way to get to know the Aggtelek National Park is to explore the area on a nature trail, discovering its values and attractions. The trails are open to the public and well worth a visit, as the national park has 9 designated nature trails, so for those who don’t want to go underground, it is a special experience to discover the surface wonders of the karst region. Here are the three most interesting ones!

The trail between the waterfalls and springs of the Baradla cave offers a wonderful natural setting to study the geological, hydrographical, fauna and flora of the area. The Baradla Trail is the oldest and most visited nature trail in the Aggtelek National Park. The trail between the Aggtelek and Jósvafő entrances of the Baradla Cave, which winds along the border between the covered and open karst, offers a chance to discover the natural and cultural history of the area. It is nearly 8 km long and takes approximately 3 hours to complete. Hiking along the trail will give you an insight into the diversity of the karst landscape, bringing you closer to understanding the seemingly complex wonders of the area.

It consists of two routes, the shorter 4 km and the longer 6 km, and takes approximately 2.5 – 3.5 hours to complete. The two circular tours introduce the visitor to the special landscape values of the Aggtelek National Park, the karstic relief and its most characteristic habitats. The longer tour is also recommended for those who want to learn more about traditional land uses and their traces: livestock, arable farming, vine and fruit growing, processing, forestry and coal burning.

The trail created under the “Countryside of the Year” programme is the first cross-border hiking trail in the region.  Marked by a green T on the Hungarian side and a green diagonal bar on the Slovak side. It is about 7 km long and takes 4-5 hours to complete. It connects the Aggtelek and Domica entrances to the Baradla-Domica cave system. Besides presenting the natural characteristics of the area, its flora and fauna, and the interaction between man and nature, the playful “puzzles” at the stations allow you to experience our natural environment directly.