Hospital in the Rock | Sziklakórház
The underground medical establishment/nuclear bunker came into being in 1939 as a military hospital secreted well away from air raids. The caves it is housed in are a series of natural hydrothermal structures under the castle area of Buda, brought together by connecting passages and corridors. The caves themselves were rooms within the hospital.
It was designed to hold 60, but over Christmas 1944 and the Siege of Budapest, it held 600 patients. It must have been bedlam. Bandages were taken from dead bodies and re-used on the living, water was cut off by Russian bombings, and as a result the rate of infection was sky-high.
Our guide told us that after the war, it was put to use by the Russian communists – as a top secret nuclear bunker and hospital. For 40 years, it was kept from prying eyes: for example, fuel was pumped underground disguised as water for the castle’s gardens.
Cave Hospital from Funzine.hu
We were told that injured Hungarian citizens would be brought into the caves should nuclear attack occur. I was more than a tad skeptical of this – surely it would be the Soviet Apparatchiks who would be ushered beneath the ground? However, perhaps something was lost in translation as the tour was run in Hungarian and English (taking turns between the two).
We heard how one man and his wife had kept the hospital running during that time: he maintained the power and ventillations systems, and she changed the bed linen once every two weeks throughout those 40 years.
Tours around this underground hospital take place every hour on the hour. Simply turn up at the door, unless you’re a group of 15+ – then you should email in advance. It can be found by walking down the street that leads directly down from the front entrance of Matthias Church to a set of steps down to the foot of the castle wall. Walk to your right and you’ll come across the entrance.
This off the beaten path tour lasts around an hour in total and is well worth seeing for the insight into a particular and important period of Hungarian history.
Details
Address: Sziklakórház Múzeum, H-1012, Budapest, Lovas, ut 4/c
Tours every hour on the hour. Open 10am – 8pm Tue to Sun.
Buses 16, 16A or 116.
Website: http://www.sziklakorhaz.hu/szikla_en.html
Photos by thelittletraveler.blogspot.com
Born in Belfast and now living in London, Julie McNamee is involved in internet marketing as a day job and blogging as a hobby. She’s interested in all things quirky and Fortean, as well as art, photography and theatre. Her blog Quirky Travel, specializes in London and Paris top tips and off the beaten path information with subjects such as London film locations and unusual Paris museums.
