City Under the City

The mysterious history of the city is presented through the former wine cellar system of Érsek.

One of the 7 architectural wonders of the country

After the invasion of the Turks, in 1687, Prince György Fenessy, who returned to Eger, no longer wanted to live in the city. The papacy bought two building plots in the civil town, and the tufa stone needed for the construction of the palace was quarried from the hill below the newly built palace. This partly built the palace, and partly created the vast cellar system, where the wine from the vineyards stretching from Hatvant to Munkács was stored. They stored the tenth of the wines (dezsmá), the church tax. This meant 11 - 12 million liters of wine per year in good years. The cellar system stretched from the Hatvani Gate to the Rác Gate, almost 4 kilometers long under the city. The most beautiful part of the cellar is the Hall of Columns, where 7 x 7 cellars line the space like a chessboard.

After the nationalization in 1947, the cellar was no longer used for wine storage, it gradually collapsed and became life-threatening. In the early 1980s, it was reinforced with a reinforced concrete structure, and the unsalvageable and very dangerous sections were filled with concrete. However, they made a mistake by not insulating the cellar system against moisture, so groundwater still seeps through the concrete to this day. However, the limestone washed out of the tuff created wonderful stalactite-like limestone formations on the walls.

In 2007, the cellar was named one of the 7 most famous Hungarian "architectural wonders" They chose.

The entrance to the cellar system can be found on Eszterházy Square, on the right side of the stairs leading to the Basilica, in front of the St. László Church. under the statue.