Kőbánya mine system:

AKA Kőbánya cellar system.

Kőbánya is also the name of Budapest 10th district. The whole area was named after this mine. Kőbánya means Stone mine (kő=stone bánya=mine) .
In total the more than 30 km long system basically a huge maze.

The floor area of the mine system about 180 000 m². The tunnels and "rooms" height vary between 4 and 10 meters.

Inside the mine system the air temperature stable all year around the same cold about 6 °C. There are areas that got flooded by the ground-water and this lucky event makes possible the dives here. The water temparuter is somewhat refreshing about 11-12 °C also the same all year round.

In Kőbánya there are four main dive sites with four separate entrances to each of them. 3 of these require full cave certification and adequate gear set up naturally. All those 3 are 100% submerged. BUT there is one which is even more extraordinary, only 1 has an air-filled surface are so this one even open water divers allowed to visit. More of this in the dive sites section

Brief History of the mine

Not even many locals know about its existence despite its 1st mention goes back to the year 1244. The stones from this mine you can see in many the buildings of Budapest. After the mining stopped the system was used for various purposes.

Eventually, diving became possible when the local beer factory stopped using the wells, and the water filled up those 4 spots.

Dive sites of Kőbánya:

Park kút /Park = park kút= well/

The one called Park kút is a bit of an exception as this one has a big room area in which the diver can enter the air-filled surface without obstacles. Park kút 's bigger room section is to some degree like as a swimming pool.

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Hence the fact here even open water divers can dive and even with a single-cylinder setup. But if one wishes to dive here like this it's very important to keep in mind some restrictions. Only full cave divers allowed to enter the parts which have a ceiling as well. And all diver has to be familiar with the cold and dark environment.

However, the area has an open-air top but the sunlight can not enter here there are artificial lights but it's generally dark. But for those who have night dive practice and don't afraid of the refreshing 11-12 °C of water this place offers a very unique dive experience. A drysuit is not a prerequisite but highly recommended.

Két lyuk a falban /2 holes in the wall/

A really nice place to dive. Location close to the main entrance of the mine system. We can park near so no need for long wallks. The entrance itself is a bit longer staircase which ends in water. So for big groups there is not much surface area. The whole are is completly floded only those who have overhead environment training can dive here, with the adequate gear.

Water temparuter: 11-12 °C Visibility: normally great there is no flow, no percolation, only divers can destroy it for themself.
Once we enter the water and start the dive we need to fallow the staircase way down. Abount 12 m deep the starse take a turn left so are we, with keep fallowing along the way the steps are ends and we reaching the depth about 14 m meters. Then we see a bigger hallway like area and and from there we reach the main room a big area about 15m. This room has two holes on each side of the walls. Both can be entered and both are shallower dead end tunnels.
If we go deeper we can decend 2 levels in the main room where we can fallow an other steps down these are metal steps.
Max. depth 32,6 meter.

Csirázó /Germinating/

The coldest of the 4 spots. Water temparuter: 8 °C Same as the rest of the places visibility normally great there is no flow, no percolation, only divers can destroy it for themself.

Entrance of Csirázó

A longer staircase let us enter the main room where we find a smaller section with an air-filled surface. As we start the dive we see a metal staircase following around the wall and about 12 meters we can enter the second layer which goes down all the way to the 32 meters depth. Normally I start the dive with the deepest part after that on the way back we can visit a corridor area. Which starts from one corner of the room and even has a mainline in it. On the way back from the corridor we can enter a second smaller room too. Due to the colder water and the smaller size of the place usually dive time here is 45 min.
Max. depth 32 meter.

Kerti kút /Garden well/

Entrance of Kerti kút

A deepset of the places is here with it's 36 meter maximum depth. But famous from the well it's basically a 10m long vertical tunnel from 20m depth till 30m. One diver at the time can fit but everyone can fit even with bulkier gears with stages as well. But not necasarry to go throu the well in order to reach the depest pont because next to the well area there is a huge spacious room whit a metal staircase by the walls. At the depest section we can se some intresting industrial metal superstructures. Carefully we can swim around it nicely to admire it from different angles.

Similar to Csirázó the basic floor area is not too big so the dive time rather depends on the divers' swimming speed and how long they wanna look around than the actual distances. Because of its depth, EAN32 is highly recommended. The water temperature is just like the other 2, not that cold places' 12°C.

Diving at Kőbánya

How & When can you dive at Kőbánya

It's necessary to arrange an appointment. Schedule depedns on the previous agrement. I dive there frequvently (more or less weekly) but alwasy on previously arranged appointments. It's important to make dives pleasent one for everyone and avoid over crovded stiuations as many divers like to dive at Kőbánya. Spot we dive deppending on the diver's level. Dives can be done even if you don't have overhead certificaion, but than we have to chose Park kút. For recreational divers minimum AOWD level and and at least 50 loged dives preferable, for them drysuit is not mandatory but highy recomanded. If they still chose to dive in wetsuit 7mm minimum and on top the usual gear, hood and glows also really imortant as well as lamps. Divers who have overhead certification free to choose a spot.

Dive gear

Dive gear I can rent you some gear such as tanks lead, no problem. Other dive gear too but it's important to clarify before the dive what you have and what might you need to borrow.

What you better know before dive at the Kőbánya mine system

How to prepare for a special environment?

It's cold (obviously) so better to bring a jacket even on the hottest summer day.
Diver documents

How to book a dive with me to Kőbánya

Any comunication way you like Here are my contact detals: CONTACT