Sziklatemplom or the Cave Church in Budapest is located in the Gellert Hill Cave, part of a network of caves, and were created from a natural cave system. Gellért Hill is named after an 11th-century monk originally from Venice, named Saint Gerard or Gellért in the Hungarian language, who spent seven years in Hungary tutoring Saint Emeric, son of Saint Stephen I, the first King of Hungary, and later lived as a hermit in the countryside.

He served as Bishop of Csanád and was tasked by King Stephen to accelerate the process of conversion of the Hungarian society to Christianity. Unfortunately, Saint Gellért fell victim to a Pagan rebellion in 1046, and it is said that he was placed in a barrel and was rolled down the hill in Buda that now bears his name.

Sometimes the Gellert Hill Cave is also referred to as Saint Ivan's Cave as it is believed that the caves were first inhabited by a hermit monk who used the natural thermal waters of a muddy lake next to the cave to cure the sick.

Although it is said that the original cave church was of the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, a monastic order which goes back in the 13th century, and the monks of the order were once confessors to Hungarian Kings, in the early 19th century the cave was inhabited by a poor family who built a small house in the great opening and later, the mouth of the cave was closed off with planking and was used as a peasant courtyard.

However, the Cave Church, as we know it today, dated back to 1924 and was inspired by Lourdes, the Catholic shrine in France. After a pilgrimage to Lourdes, a group of inspired Hungarian pilgrims of Pauline monks formed a committee to create a church under St. Gellért Hill, incorporating what used to be known as St. Ivan’s Cave, and they received enthusiastic support from Gyula Pfeiffer, the chief counsel to the Hungarian government.

They constructed the first modern entrance to the caves in 1920, to turn the cave into an official church of the Paulite order, the only native Hungarian order. In 1936, it was consecrated on Pentecost, a major Christian festival, and at the same, the Pauline Fathers, whose presence in Hungary had been suppressed in 1786 by Habsburg Emperor Joseph II, were invited to return after an absence of 150 years. As they returned in 1934, the order’s return to Hungary, the Cave Church became a centre of Pauline spirituality in Hungary and it served as a chapel and monastery until 1951.

However, during the days of World War II, the Cave Church had to serve as a field hospital for the army of Nazi Germany, till the Soviet Red Army captured Budapest in 1945. Under the new regime, the cave was allowed to continue its religious functions for six years till 1951, when as part of increasing action against the church by Hungary’s Stalinist authorities, the State Protection Authority raided and sealed the chapel, the Pauline Order was disbanded, the monks deported or imprisoned and the Pauline Superior, Ferenc Vezér was executed in 1951 after a show trial for allegedly incited the murder of Soviet soldiers. While his remains were buried in an unmarked grave, the remaining brothers were imprisoned for upwards of ten years.

As the Iron Curtain disintegrated after the fall of the communist rule in Hungary on 23 October 1989, on the 33rd anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet rule in 1956, the chapel reopened on 27 August 1989 with the destruction of the thick concrete wall that had once sealed the cave.

By 1992, the Chapel had been restored and the Pauline Order had returned to the cave. The researchers located the grave of Ferenc Vezér in a corner of Budapest’s Új Köztemető cemetery, and he was posthumously exonerated by Hungary’s Superior Court.

Today, the church is complemented by a mysterious monastery carved into the rock and decorated with striking neo-gothic turrets. .While the natural rock formed the walls of the cave, the terrace in front of the entrance is proudly guarded by the statue of Saint Stephen standing beside his horse. The church is equipped with several rooms, ornamented with carved hardwood decorations by a faithful follower of the Pauline Order. The Cave Church in Budapest is considered a national propitiatory shrine and expressions of faith life combined with narratives of Hungarian national history.