Jenő Ruffinyi (; 1 March 1846 in Dobsina,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

– 13 January 1924 in Dobšiná,

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

) was a Hungarian mining engineer and amateur speleologist who, together with Gustav Lang und Andreas Méga, was the first to explore

Dobšiná Ice Cave Dobšiná Ice Cave (; ) is an ice cave in Slovakia, near the mining town of Dobšiná in the Slovak Paradise. Since 2000 it has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list as a part of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst site, beca ...

().

Background and education

The Ruffinyi family had moved to Dobsina (today

Dobšiná Dobšiná (; ; Latin: ''Dobsinium'') is a small town in the Slovak Ore Mountains along the Slaná River. For 500 years it was a small but prosperous mining village populated by ethnic Germans within the Kingdom of Hungary; today it is a Slovaks, ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

) from Italy because Eugene's father accepted a position as a mining engineer in this city. The original name of his family was ''Ruffini''. Jenő attended primary school in Dobsina, and high school in Késmárk (today

Kežmarok Kežmarok ( or ; , , , ) is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia (population 16,000), on the Poprad River. Prior to World War I, it was in Szepes county in the Kingdom of Hungary. History Settlement at Kežmarok dates back to the Up ...

). He then took up mining studies in Selmecbánya (today

Banská Štiavnica Banská Štiavnica (; ; , ) is a town in central Slovakia, in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. For its size, the caldera is known as the Štiavnica Mountains. Banská Štiavnica has a population of ...

), where he earned his degree in 1869. On his return to Dobsina, he became a mining overseer and metallurgical inspector.

Exploration of the Ice Cave

While touring Ducsa Hill near Dobsina with his friend, Lt. Gustav Lang, in 1869, Ruffinyi threw a stone into an opening in the rock that was known as Cold Hole () in local lore. From the multiple and delayed echos, the men got the impression that a substantial cave must extend beyond the entrance and decided to return for an exploration. On June 15, 1870, Ruffinyi was the first to enter the cave, sliding down on a hemp rope.

Honors

The elementary school in Dobšiná, Jenő Ruffinyi Elementary School (), is named after Ruffinyi.

References

Sources

* Krenner J.S., Die Eishöhle von Dobschau. K. Ungar. Naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft, 1874 * https://web.archive.org/web/20160307081514/http://www.macse.org/gravestones/byname.aspx?i=R&i2=Ru&l=Ruffinyi&pn=0&pg=0&id=2838 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruffinyi, Jeno 1846 births 1924 deaths People from Rožňava District 19th-century Hungarian people 20th-century Hungarian people Speleologists Mining engineers Hungarian people of Italian descent Engineers from Austria-Hungary