Intro
After spending four days diving in the MJ cave, we headed to a nearby mine to do a couple dives. I think it was Ben Lair that said something like “a mine is like what would happen if a cave dive and a wreck dive had a baby.” 🙂
I’d say I have to agree with him after doing two dives in the Kobanya Mine. I’ll go through some of the history of this specific mine and then give details of the dives along with some photos & videos.
Kobanya Mine
Most of this information is from the Wikipedia site [1] and from talking with our dive guide. The mine is a really extensive system of tunnels and rooms that started out as an underground limestone quarry and likely started operations in the 13th century. The mine provided limestone for some of the most famous buildings in Budapest including the Parliament Building, the Chain Bridge, and the Opera House (among many others).
Over time, the mine was used for winemaking and brewing beer as well. During the phylloxera plague, the winemaking ceased but beer breweries continued to operate. The first documented brewery was the Kobanya Beer House Company which started there in 1844. They used the underground spaces for fermentation and drilled wells for clear groundwater. The brewery changed hands a few times throughout the years. According to our dive guide, the mine was known for a very unique water that was well suited to making the beer.
Due to instabilities in the tunnel system, limestone mining was banned in 1890. During WW II, parts of the mine complex were used as a covert Messerschmitt airplane engine assembly plant. Some 200 engines were built in the mine complex before the Russians troops closed in on Budapest and relocated the factory back to Germany. Also during this time, the complex acted as shelter for civilians and there is one area that is known as the “chapel” that served as a pace of worship (photo below).
During the communist era, the site and the brewery were nationalized and became known as “Site No. 1 of the Kobanya Beer Brewery.” When Hungary transitioned to a market economy in 1992, it became a private company named “Dreher Beer Breweries.” There were numerous cave-ins and accidents throughout the years.
The site is currently the property of the Kobanya district government but the Dreher Beer Breweries company still uses some of the cellar spaces and some other areas are used by wineries. For a while other areas were used for growing edible mushrooms but that ended in the late 2000s. In 2007, they started giving walking tours, cycling and running competitions and, of course, diving!
The site is massive. The combined length of the tunnels is estimated to be 32-35 km long. The area is somewhere in the 180,000-200,000 square meters. Below is a short video I shot while we were first entering into the tunnel complex:
I took some photos that also show some other areas of the mine complex:
Diving in the Mine
As I understand it, most of the flooded areas were wells built by the Dreher Brewery. There are 5 diving spots of which 4 require technical/cave diving certifications. They range in depth from 29-36m (95-118 feet).
Below are two maps. One depicts the overall complex (on the left) and then one that is a close-up of the area where the diving is (on the right). You can see four areas of blue that indicate the four dive sites. We dove two of them as indicated.
The water temperature was about 11 C / 52 F but the dives are usually only about 40-45 minutes long and all dives are guided.
Below is a video of the dive briefing for the first dive which we conducted on the steps leading into the water.
I found diving in the mines interesting and fun. I think it is the first time I’ve ever gone diving in a mine and I’d like to do more of it in the future. I know there are quite a few famous mine diving sites throughout Europe.
Dive 1 Photos
All photos below are by Ben Lair. The standout feature of the first dive was the round circular staircase that extends three stories from the bottom to the top.
Dive 2 Photos
Again, all photos below are by Ben Lair.
Videos
I took a GoPro and an Insta360 on the dives and got some interesting footage.
The 25 second clip below shows us going down the stairway on the first dive we did. It is a bit odd to go down a stairway in scuba equipment. I’ve done it plenty of times on wrecks, but it feels different with brick steps for some reason.
The 40 second clip below gives a sense of the cool, round spiral staircase inside the first dive site. The guide (diving open circuit) goes down first followed by Dave.
The one minute clip below is from our second dive and gives an idea of the size of the rooms and passages in the mine.
Lastly, below is an Insta360 video from the second dive.
There was another group diving inside the same mine as we were and you can see them pass underneath us. I chose this clip because there is so much light in the room and the bubbles going past give it some depth. It also allows you to move the video around in 3D space.
About 30 seconds into the video, you can see the other divers emerge from the passage below through a hole in the floor and then pass underneath us.
References
