For centuries, the cave served humbler purposes: a poor family built a sun-dried brick house in its mouth during the 1860s and used the great opening as a peasant courtyard.

Then, in 1924, Hungarian pilgrims returned from Lourdes with a rather ambitious idea. Within two years, Pauline monks had blasted a proper entrance and transformed the space into a functioning chapel, complete with a neo-Gothic monastery carved into the rock.

The Communist government took a dimmer view. On Easter Monday, 1951, secret police arrested the entire order, executed their superior, and sealed the entrance behind two metres of concrete. The wall stood for nearly four decades.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace this turbulent history, connecting the cave church to the broader story of faith, resistance and renewal that shaped modern Hungary.