In March, the month of caves, Hungary’s national parks will be offering special programs as part of a campaign to promote caves that are open to the public, it was announced on Friday at a press event held in Budapest’s Szemlő-hegyi cave.

The current, sixth such campaign features longer opening hours, discounts, and tours in cave sections that are not normally open to the public. All five national parks with caves that an be visited by the public are participating in the program recently announced by State Secretary for Environmental Affairs András Rácz. For example, tickets to the Baradla Cave of the Aggteleki National Park are available at a 30% discount.

Other caves that await visitors with reduced prices on certain days include the Szentgáli-kőlik, Lóczy Cave and Csodabogyós Cave in the Balaton Uplands National Park; the Szent István and Anna Caves in the Bükk National Park; Abaligeti Cave in the Duna-Dráva National Park; and the Pál-völgyi, Szemlő-hegyi and Mátyás-hegyi Caves in the Duna-Ipoly National Park. Visit the campaign site (magyarnemzetiparkok.hu/barangolas) for detailed information.

“The 40 cave-related sites of the five participating national parks attracted 516,000 visitors last year, putting these subterranean tours among the most popular eco-tourism programs in Hungary”, the State Secretary added.

“Budapest is also called the city of caves because no other capital city in the world has so many cave tunnels below its streets. As many as 174 caves are known below Budapest, with a total length exceeding 50 km. In fact, the Pál Valley Cave, Hungary’s longest, 31-kilometre cave, is also located below the capital”, Mr. Rácz noted.

38 billion forints (EUR 120 million) is being spent on the development of environmental protection within the current EU programming period, of which 1.5 billion forints (EUR 4.7 million) is specifically earmarked for the protection of caves. Over four thousand caves have been discovered in Hungary, most of which are karst caves or caves formed by thermal water. About 40 of these geological formations are open to the public. All caves are protected and managed by national parks, and their length exceeds 290 kilometres.

(MTI)