Circular route from Jósvafő to the Bíbic doline and the entrance of the Béke cave

Itinerary:

• The P mark leads out of the village through Dankó Pista Street, showing the correct direction for 5 kilometers.
• At the signposted junction, we turn right onto the Z+ mark - which we follow for 3.6 kilometers.
• The path merges into the Z mark, where we turn right.
• Upon reaching the entrance of the Béke Cave, we follow the Z mark on the right side of the research house.
• On the ascent, we cross the Aggtelek–Jósvafő paved road and joining the S mark, descend back to Jósvafő, the starting point of our trip.

Detailed description of the route

We start from the charming, monument-protected center of Jósvafő, which has 250 inhabitants. The word "jósva" is of Slavic origin, meaning "stream bordered by alder trees." The suffix "fő" indicates the beginning, the source of the brook. The village’s atmosphere and structure are defined by the constant sound of water: four brooks—Kecső, Kajta, Jósva, and Tohonya—meet here. Rows of houses with porches were built in the 19th century, behind which are framed barns, threshing floors, hay storages, and other outbuildings, which are now barely visible. While walking through the village, don’t forget to see the mill building, the Jewish cemetery, and the Kessler Huba memorial house, located near the entrance of the Baradla Cave.

From the settlement to the world of lichens

Crossing the bridge over the Jósva brook, the P mark continues along Dankó Pista Street. Leaving behind a dozen small houses, the path steadily climbs. To the left, we have a view of the village’s meadows, then follow a narrow, densely vegetated, misty gully heading south-southeast. Between two moss-covered rocky slopes, we enter a mixed deciduous forest. After a while, the path and the mark disappear; turning left uphill toward the east, we spot them again on the hillside. After two kilometers, a splendid 360° panorama opens up from the Almás Vineyards clearing.

The Aggtelek karst is one of Hungary’s coolest regions. Often, the weather is humid and foggy - it can even be frosty for 120–130 days a year. One of the most striking signs of this is that in the abandoned old orchard of Almás Hill, standing dead trees are covered with a thick, continuous grayish-blue layer that slowly consumes them—the blue moss. It is rare to see so many mushroom species in a single route. The rocks that appear in the forest are also thickly covered with mosses and lichens.

After covering 3.6 kilometers, at the signposted junction, we turn sharply right, almost back west, onto the Z+ mark. For a while, we walk through a pine forest, then a beech forest mixed with pines. It is worth examining the untouched forest without intervention, which contains many fallen and decaying trees, hosting numerous fungal species.

Between dolines and (therapeutic) caves

Along the way, we can see smaller dolines, 5–6 meters in diameter, i.e., sinkholes shaped like bomb craters. These geological formations are among the most characteristic surface features of karst areas; slow dissolution continuously deepens the rock into hollows. At the bottom of the dolines, ponors and shafts can form, but often their bases are blocked by collapsed soil, debris, or clay. Leaving the smaller depressions behind, on the left side, we see the Bíbic Doline, which is much larger—about 15 meters wide and equally deep—and is full of fallen tree trunks.

The Z+ mark merges into the Z mark after 2.6 kilometers; we turn right, heading north. After about one kilometer, we reach a man-made entrance to the Béke Cave, which is accessed by a dozen steps. The strictly protected cavity is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List and can only be visited on organized tours; the entrance is guarded by a locked iron door.

The cave, discovered in 1952, is 7,183 meters long with a vertical extent of 97 meters. It has two developed and one now-closed entrance, and bats reach its depths through numerous tiny cracks impassable to humans. Béke Cave is the second longest cave in the Aggtelek karst and the most spectacular domestically, with the richest dripstone formations. The cave air is very clean, free of airborne dust, pollen, bacteria, or viruses, with a very high humidity between 85% and 100%, and an exceptionally high dissolved calcium level. It has rightly earned the title "Hungary’s first therapeutic cave"—near one entrance, a cave therapy room has been established for those with respiratory diseases. We must also mention the cave’s special antibiotic effect, whose discovery was a chance finding: cave workers who were ill reported wonderful recovery after working there. Upon investigation, it was found that the spores of mold fungi in the air and all 72 species of fungi found in the soil produce antibiotics that have a beneficial effect on the human body.

Continuing on the path, at the end of the hillside clearing, we find a tiny, well-maintained speleologist research house; to its right side, the Z mark climbs upwards. The marked hiking trail eventually heads northwest—be careful because a much more frequently used forestry road may lead us eastward! After one kilometer, we reach the Aggtelek–Jósvafő road, cross it, and with the S mark, descend serpentine on the paved road, reaching the village again on a steep slope.