Egerszalok
If you want to see a pile of salt, you can’t choose from many places. In America, such an amazing formation is seen only in Yosemite National Park, and in Asia only in Pamukkale, Turkey. But fortunately, there is a third option in the world: we can take a car and if we leave Budapest, we can go down to Egerszalók in an hour and a half, where the only salt hill in Europe rises.
Water flowing from the depths created a 1,200-square-foot limestone deposit.
But if you’re already in a harsh county settlement, let’s take a look at the picturesque cave dwellings or the mysterious hive stones. In the case of the latter, it is still unknown why people dug the cabins in the rocks of volcanic origin at that time.
Image source: RevNGo.com
Hungarian girl
The main historical street of the settlement is noted not only in Hungary, but also in the European Union: Magyarpolány was awarded the Europa Nostra Prize for the protection of monuments in the European Union. Although there are hardly a thousand inhabitants, there are still about a hundred protected buildings in the village. Particularly stunning are Bakony farmhouses with balconies and local Calvary, which is topped by 153 steps.
There are life-size statues in its stations.
Sailor
In the Hungarian countryside, wine producers often build cellars and printing houses next to each other, which is why there are so many villages in Hungary where whole cellars have been set up and not just cellars but whole cellars.
The largest of them all was formed, in the district of Kaluksa, in Hagos, which is a record not only for us, but for the whole of Europe.
It consists of about 1,300 buildings carved into loess. The oldest was completed in 1840.
Boats await local tourists with a separate visitor center.
Image source: hajosvaros.hu
Image source: Zebegény
On the former main street of the village, the old-fashioned houses follow one another. Sloped ceilings painted blue and house numbers decorated with sunflowers. The private street view was originally the idea of Count Laszlón Karolyi, “the grandmother of the village”. A kind of “children’s paradise” was created in the ornate buildings of that time.
In Zebegény, thanks to the nearby Danube Bend, the view is almost everywhere like climbing out of a postcard.
The settlement is also famous for its rock-cut church, which was inhabited by a hermit at that time. But there is also an Art Nouveau church and an impressive castle connected to the banks of the Danube by a flight of stairs.
They are coming
The area was inhabited in antiquity, and the first written mention of the village is in one of our earliest surviving charters, Goden the Brave’s Will 1079.
It is one of the rare settlements in the Balaton Heights that did not become extinct during the Turkish occupation.
The church is not only very old: there is a Wensler house built in the 17th century in a village of no more than a few hundred people, right next to Bungracch Castle.
He also received the Heald Award for the efforts of the locals in carefully preserving the village’s image.
