Cave homes of the old #Budafok:It might come as a surprise to many that in the middle of the 20th ce
Cave homes of the old #Budafok:It might come as a surprise to many that in the middle of the 20th century over 1000 poverty-stricken people lived in 300 wretched cave-homes, hollowed out of limestone in Budafok. In 1880, with increasing commercial wine production underway, a union of wine producing and bottling industries created a cellar network hollowed out of the limestone beneath Budafok. The cellar system, 25 kilometers in length and the largest in all of Europe, is still extant today. As such, Budafok is commonly referred to as “Cellar Town.” Living in a cave sounded a very romantic and cheap (costing only 400 forints) idea in the 19th century, but by the 20th, the reality of sometimes ten people living in a dark, dank hole with no electricity and filled with nasty smells hit home. Realizing the serious health risks, the communist government relocated the cave-dwellers – the last family moved out in 1967. Opened in 1971, this one-of-its-kind museum is the only cave that was left intact, storing its original furniture. -- source link