A leisurely ride along the Ráckevei-Danube

Itiner:

• InRáckeve, from the HÉV station, take Kossuth Lajos street in a southerly direction to theFollow the road along Eötvös Street towards the centre of town.
• Turn right at the STOP sign (towards Makád/Lórév) and follow the road towards the Serbian church (turn left at the first opportunity onto Ady Endre Street).
• From the Serbian church, continue straight on Ady Endre Street, then turn left at the end of the street onto Móricz Zsigmond Street and left again at the first intersection (Szent István tér).
• You can roll down the small street next to the Reformed Church (Szegedi Kis István sétány) to the Danube bank, to the boat mill (except on Saturday market days).
• From the shore, go up to the Árpád Bridge, and when you get off the bridge, turn immediately right (Dömsödi út). From here you basically follow the coastal road to Dömsöd, you can't get lost on this stretch.
• After the football field in Dömsöd, turn right (Petőfi utca) and then left on the bank onto Középső-Dunapart. From here you should go straight ahead again, following the coastal road.
• On the outskirts ofTass, the asphalt road crosses the Tassi main canal on a small bridge, then bends left about 50 metres further on - turn right here! The small street (Dunasor street) leads to the tassi wooden bridge, roll carefully over it and continue straight ahead. After passing the service buildings of the tassi lock, turn right over a small bridge and follow the fence to the stairs leading up to the lock.
• Cross the lock and at the first opportunity, roll right down the embankment and continue along the bottom of the embankment until you can climb back up. From here, just roll along the dam for kilometres, parallel to the RSD. Where the tarmac road bends left off the dam, follow the road towards Makad.
• In Makád, the Rákóczi Ferenc street leads straight through, in Szigetbecsé you only have to follow the main road through the village, as in Ráckeve.
• When you reach the Árpád bridge in the centre ofRáckeve, keep straight on, Kossuth Lajos utca leads to the HÉV station.

Detailed description of the tour

If you arrive in Ráckeve by HÉV, you can still get a sense of the charm of the former local railways. It's true that the green and white trains, built in the GDR, shuttle up and down the electrified line all day long, but the track quality is still very good.The quality of the track, the speed of the trains, or even the image of the stations, is in no way reminiscent of an important and busy suburban connection. The line was built in 1887, first to Soroksár and then five years later to Dunaharaszti, before being extended for another five years.Ráckeve in 1897, thus linking the town to the country - even if only with a vicinal railway.

French general, Serbian priests

Exiting the building of the HÉV station, reminiscent of a rural railway station with little traffic, we turn right and set off on our pleasant journey. The Savoy Castle appears on your right as soon as you reach the first kilometre. The first Baroque castle in Hungary was built by the Frenchman, but his services were entrusted to the German-Roman Emperor I. Lipót, a talented man who first fought against the Turks and then in almost all the Habsburgs' wars.(Count Eugène-François de Savoie-Carignano). This outstanding general is also a legendary figure in Hungarian history, since he was present in 1683 in the presence of Mrs.l when the Turks besieged the imperial city, and then in 1686 when Buda was retaken.A year later, he was among the first to break through enemy lines at the Battle of Nagyharsány, and a year after that, he was one of the first to take the lead in the battle of the city of Buda.and in 1697, as commander-in-chief of the imperial troops, he is credited with the victory over the Turks at Zenta. No wonder he was given several estates in Hungary: the island of Csepel and Promontor (now Budafok). The castle, completed by 1702, became the heir to the crown after Savoy's death.It was used as a storehouse and granary at times. In the 1970s the building was renovated and a hotel was opened, but today (2020) it is closed and cannot be visited.

Our next stop is the Serbian church, which would be a shame to miss. You can see its blue baroque tower from a distance, but once inside the church's frame through the small gate, the building reveals itself in all its glory. It soon becomes apparent that the tower is not even attached to the medieval building, which in its entirety can be walked around and admired inside and out. It was originally built in the 12th century. A church may have stood here in the 12th century, and soon after the arrival of the Serbs (which will be discussed later) they needed their own church.The church was not shared with the Catholics, and so this magnificent Gothic building, consecrated in 1487, was built. Later, two chapels were added to its southern side and a monastery was built around it. Through the doorway of the Chapel of St John the Baptist you enter the breathtaking Gothic space, where the walls are decorated from floor to ceiling with biblical scenes.The walls tell biblical stories and depict saints, but the back door also features a detailed depiction of hell. The interior and the building of the house of God in Ráckeve rival those of Serbian and Montenegrin Orthodox churches.

And how did the Serbs get here? They fled to the island of Csepel to escape the Turkish expansion in the Balkans in the Middle Ages. When the Ottoman troops occupied Sendrő in 1439 and twice sacked Kevevara (Kovin), the TúThe survivors headed north, hoping to leave the threat from Anatolia behind. In 1440 I. Ulászló granted them an estate and a late Gothic church on the island of Csepel, from which date the name Felsőkeve (Serbian: Felsőkeve) on the island of Csepel: Gornji Kovin) or Ráckeve (or Srpski Kovin) with its church dedicated to the Assumption of the Mother of God. The Serbs were unlucky with the Turks, who arrived here a century later and stayed for 150 years. In any case, there are still six Serbian families living in the village, whose members attend the two to three-hour liturgy in the church every Sunday.

From the Serbian church, we approach the Ráckeve (Soroksár) Danube (hereinafter RSD) from the direction of the Reformed Church. The Reformed Church was built in 1913 in neo-Gothic style, but in its mass and details it is a perfect copy of the Tiszakécske church. When we reach the Danube bank, we turn northwards, not far from the town, to visit a ship's mill that is bobbing on the water. The unique industrial monument is a replica in today's ugly parlance: The faithful reconstruction of the Gyurcsik number 12 shipwright's mill has been open to visitors since 2010, commemorating the more than fifty shipwrights who built it in the 19th century. It is one of the fifty or so ships that operated here in the 19th century. The fate of the mills was sealed by the RSD regulations (every spring the structures had to be towed out to the Great Danube and then back in the autumn), although their complete decline dates back to the period after the First World War. The mill is not at all a rebuilt structure, and its rolling mill (several mills) is a major source of damage.Its mill is original (along with several other parts) and is even grinding on Sundays (or when larger groups book in advance), much to the delight of visitors. True, the paddle wheels are not driven by water, but by an IFA engine in perpetual second gear, but that doesn't detract from the experience.

Holiday meltdown on the shores of the RSD

After seeing the main sights, we head for the Árpád Bridge and the left bank: passing the former customs house, we climb up to the crossing inaugurated in 1897. From the pretty little structure (blown up by retreating Hungarian troops in 1944; rebuilt five years later), turn right and look out over the river.past an open-air beach, and then, on the left of the road, houses give way to fields and a graceful hydroglobe bus appears in the distance. After a right-left bend, the road turns into a small (for a while), high-quality road with little traffic.asphalt strip turns onto the banks of the Danube and the fun begins.

There are probably not as many bridges on Lake Balaton as you will see until Tass - and fortunately the owners don't usually fence off the way in and out of the lake.so they might not be angry if you give in to the temptation and go out for a little contemplation on the banks of the river. Not every cottage has a summer house, but every summer house has a summer house. At least, that's the impression you get as you drive along the (increasingly poor quality) coastal road. A closer look at the holiday homes reveals the evolution of this type of construction over the last 50-60 years. In addition, the holiday homes sometimes include snack bars, occasionally small cafés and restaurants.It's hard to resist the temptation of a cool refreshment in the summer heat. (Maybe it's worth the three-hour round trip on the HÉV?)

Zip across the 1586th river kilometre

The Tassi sluice, which closes the RSD from the south, lies along the 1586.0 river-kilometre section of the Danube, andand was built in 1926-28 as the last step in the regulation of the Danube branch. The first step in this series was the closure of the Ráckevei-Duna in 1885 with a barrier dam after the main branch had been regulated. This was necessary primarily because the river, which had widened to almost a kilometre below Gellérthegy, posed a significant flood risk to Pest-Buda (later Budapest) and the surrounding area.It was after the flood of 1838 that the planning of the flood control system began, and then, on the basis of a law of 1870, the actual works could begin.

After the closure of the Soroksár-Duna (which, incidentally, did not take place at the upper estuary, but in the area of the present-day Gubacsi Bridge), the Danube was planned and built in 1873.However, the water level began to fall, which was accompanied by silting up and the loss of navigability. This was helped by the construction of the Kvassay lock (first the navigation lock, then the water intake), which was built in the middle of the river.The construction of the Kvassassay sluice near the upper estuary and the Tassi sluice near the lower estuary. The 1956 icy flood destroyed the sluice gate and power station at Tass, which has not been rebuilt since.Today, you can return to Csepel Island on your hike by crossing the lock. (A major construction project is currently underway (in 2020): a new drainage lock is being built near the ship lock.)

After the water diversion, we head north across the dam, whose shore side resembles a campsite stretching for several kilometres: caravans in numbered places along the waterfront, neatly lined up. The Makadi Silver Coast is a fishing paradise, with 136 numbered pitches, mainly for anglers, and a local fishing village.but there is also a beach at the northern end of the 3.5-kilometre-long stretch of beach. With the beach, we leave the coast behind for a while, following the line of the dam and entering Makád on the asphalt road. Passing the southernmost settlement on the island of Csepel, we continue northwards along a low-traffic, good-quality road with some incomprehensible bends. In Szigetbecsé, a small square is a tree of life between two real trees: a colourful disc with the names and birth dates of all the children born since the turn of the millennium. Once a year, as part of the Mother's Day celebrations, parents are invited to place the emblems of their children born in the previous year.

Back in Ráckeve, there's almost nothing left to do but roll through the town, but there is one sight we've deliberately left for the end of the tour. It's worth climbing up to the tower of the town hall, as you can see practically the entire route from the fire tower 's perimeter. On a clear day, you can also see the Buda Hills, the towers of Százhalombatta and Ercsi, and even the Venetian Mountains. There's really nothing left to do but have a good meal at a local restaurant before heading home.