Diana’s cave sanctuary in Csákvár (county Fejér)

Abstract

Near Csákvár, in the so-called Báraczháza cave there are relics of an antique Diana cult. A number of inscriptions can be found before and within the cave system, part of them known from the 18 th c., part of them unpublished. The two main passages of the cave seem to have been the sanctuary. In the left passage the Diana idol carved into the stone remained, its iconography is nearly unique, and fits to a provincial cult based on pre-Roman, Celtic or Pannon background. At the end of the right passage there is a strange short inscription with a phallic symbol scratched into the wall, which may refer to the divine pair of the local Diana goddess, called most likely Silvanus. The statue and some inscriptions were made, and consequently the sanctuary was certainly used in the Severan Era, and probably remained in use until the later 4 th c., when the spreading Christianity must have finished the cult, although the possible Christograms in the walls of the cave cannot be taken doubtless as signs for that; the cave contains some early New Age inscriptions too.