Following lakes and castles on the slopes of the Cserhát

Itinerary

• You can reach the castle from the Nógrád train station by bypassing the castle hill from the west.
• Heading east towards Nőtincs, leave the settlement on Felszabadulás street. Upon reaching main road number 2, turn right, then after 300 meters turn left. (Attention! Outside built-up areas, it is forbidden to turn left directly on main roads by bicycle! We especially recommend following this rule here, as vehicles usually approach the poorly visible Nőtincs junction at high speed.)
• After passing through Nőtincs and covering 1.5 kilometers, turn right at the Ősagárd junction, passing through Ősagárd and Keszeg until reaching the road leading to Alsópetény, where you turn left.
• In Alsópetény, near the castle fence, leave the main road on a right-hand curve (castle on the right, distillery on the left), then follow the National Blue Trail signs until the village border. (However, it is worth detouring into the village – in that case, just keep riding on the main road and then return to this junction.)
• At the border of Alsópetény, the blue sign remains on the right bank of the Petény stream, but our path leads across a bridge to the left bank onto a dirt road that is sometimes better or less passable, but is well trackable throughout. Until reaching Felsőpetény, there is only one major junction about halfway between the two villages, where we turn right.
• Upon arriving in Felsőpetény, turn right onto the road through the village, then follow this road to the junction near the mine where we turn left towards Bánk.
• After reaching Bánk, turn towards Rétság, then turn left onto the westernmost street (Benczúr street) of the village. Leave the steep road by turning right at the tennis courts; from there, follow the dirt road to neighboring Rétság.
• Upon reaching main road number 2 in Rétság, turn left, then at Táncsics street turn right; this street leads to Tolmács. Upon entering the village, turn left at the first street (Szent Lőrinc street) and right at the next (Béke street).
• At the end of Béke street, turn left, and then immediately right at the next option to continue westward on a dirt road along the ridge. After approximately 1.5 km, turn left, then cross the former Romhány railway crossing and turn right.
• At the edge of the village, it is advisable to stay on the dirt road heading left, then upon reaching asphalt, turn left again. Follow the road along the shore of Jenői lake until a short climb leads to an intersection; here turn right.
• Reaching the southern tip of Diósjenő, turn left towards Nógrád. Following this road, you return to the starting point of the tour, the Nógrád train station.

Detailed description of the route

It is worthwhile arriving in Nógrád by train from Vác for several reasons, as the railway line from Verőce through the Morgó stream valley is among the most scenic in Hungary. Upon getting off the train, the first landmark, the castle hill with ruins, is immediately visible. Only a slight detour to the western edge of the village leads to the Csurgó spring ("Csurgó good drinking water") next to the railway, which has served the locals for over 300 years. Its current form is the result of conservation work by Nógrád environmentalists in 1985. Let us heed their advice: “Let us protect our public treasure, good drinking water!”

With fresh spring water in the flask, head to the castle! The Castle Hill, which rises 50-60 meters above its surroundings, is a "by-product" of volcanic activity shaping the Börzsöny, and even before the stone castle’s construction, a rudimentary earthwork fort stood here. Today, the main attention among the fortress ruins is attracted by the tall stump of the old tower. The stone walls, mostly crumbled by now, have witnessed much over the centuries: during King Saint Stephen's era, Nógrád County’s seat was here, but during the Tatar invasion, the castle was depopulated and never regained its previous role. From the second half of the 18th century, the castle belonged to the bishops of Vác, who significantly rebuilt, expanded, and fortified it. During the Ottoman era, it served as a stronghold and changed hands several times, until in 1685 a lightning strike caused an explosion in the powder magazine, prompting the Turks to burn and abandon the remaining castle. The still-standing walls were demolished by the Kuruc in 1709. Today, there is a magnificent view from the castle walls towards the High Börzsöny, Cserhát, and Naszály – on clear days, even the Mátra and the mountains around Zólyom are visible.

From Nógrád, we head towards the slopes of Cserhát – immediately a climb leads out of the village, lasting gently all the way to main road number 2. After climbing the ridge, there is a beautiful view of the Morgó stream valley and, farther away, Naszály. The main road must be crossed carefully, obeying traffic rules! Then the descent towards Nőtincs begins; upon entering the village, the first castle on the route appears. The Gyurcsányi-Scitovszky manor, built in a classicist style in 1809, which housed a school from 1945 for nearly forty years, stands in the middle of a two-hectare park and can only be viewed through its fence. Turning left at the church, you arrive at the Seholsziget Adventure Park, where children can get lost for the whole day: there is a riding school, petting zoo, blacksmith workshop, playgrounds... Not far away is the Nőtincs lake, created by damming the Lókos stream.

After Nőtincs, Ősagárd is the next village on the route, which can be reached after overcoming a challenging local serpentine. It is worth taking a closer look at the old gravestones opposite the church. Continuing along a narrow, partly poor-quality, but consequently very low-traffic road surrounded by forests and fields – there is a chance to encounter deer or even foxes in this section. The name of the little village Keszeg hidden among the hills is interesting, but very little is known about its origin; it was first mentioned at the end of the 13th century in a document under the name Keysyg. Perhaps it was named Kőszeg, or perhaps it refers to a "military order name" from the conquest period. In any case, in the middle of the village stands a neat little manor, the Huszár-Purgly castle, consisting of three buildings, built in the early 1800s in the baroque (copf) style. Its two-hectare, now heavily deteriorated old park once featured beautifully maintained winding paths among large trees; even a greenhouse once stood somewhere. On the northern side of the castle park, WWII Soviet military graves can be found, while the monument-protected, but somewhat dilapidated granary can be admired on the eastern side of the estate along the road. A hill starts next to the granary, which will bring three similarly long climbs until the Alsópetény junction – compensated by three descents as the landscape undulates.

At the Alsópetény junction, turn left to overcome a short, gentle climb before rolling by the popular fishing spot Cser lake into the village full of many curiosities. The Prónay castle "is located close to the capital and the airport, on Alsópetény’s main street opposite the church hill," as stated in the introduction to the privately owned noble residence’s website. The castle complex consists of several buildings; its most important parts are the Grand Castle and the Small Castle, which reached their current forms at the end of the 19th century, built on older foundations. Today, the castle hosts weddings and other events, but parts of it are open to visitors by prior arrangement. Climbing up the hillside above the village from the castle, you find the former Jewish cemetery at the edge of the forest. The once significant Jewish community of 200-300 people is commemorated by many graves, the oldest from the 1790s, with the last burials recorded in the 1950s. Rolling back to the main street and crossing it, you can climb to the church hill. The local house of worship was built in the 15th century originally in Gothic style – traces of this can still be seen despite the 1724 reconstruction. Another curiosity is the two-story baroque church tower, which stands separately a few meters from the church. The churchyard features old stone crosses and the huge granite memorial known as the Werbőczy pyramid, commemorating the region’s former lord who is known in history as the author of the Tripartitum – moreover, he wrote his work here in 1513-14.

From Alsópetény, continue along the Petény stream towards Felsőpetény – this requires a short backward ride, passing again by the Prónay castle, and before turning right next to the distillery, following the National Blue Trail sign, take a last look at another notable building of the village, the Andreánszky castle. The manor was almost completely destroyed in the 20th century and was rebuilt almost from scratch by its current owner using old records and a photograph. Leaving the National Blue Trail line at a bridge crossing the Petény stream, continue on a cart road along the watercourse to the neighboring Felsőpetény. Although it is not a marked path, it is hard to get lost: at the only major junction, turn right. Upon arrival in Felsőpetény, you encounter another castle. The Almásy castle, built in 1902, is particularly known for having held József Mindszenty, prince primate and archbishop of Esztergom, under house arrest from November 2, 1955, to October 30, 1956, as attested by a memorial plaque on the building. Although the castle park is fenced, it is not hard to find spots from where you can embark on a small exploration trip – the castle, which was also used as a foster home, stands visibly empty and is not utilized by its current tenant. Not surprisingly, the village has a small lake, and at the Bánk junction, there is a former clay quarry, where raw materials were mined partly by underground and partly by open-pit workings. The place has two curiosities: one is still visible, the remaining infrastructure of the former mining railway (tracks, loading docks, mine carts, and ore wagons). The second curiosity is that although it is a clay quarry, some of the mining cuts cross limestone, where several small and larger caves are hidden.

Turn left opposite the quarry entrance towards Bánk. The former railway track soon crosses the asphalt road, then the old embankment accompanies us on the left side to Bánk – in some places, signs left behind can still be seen, which once informed train drivers about the track's gradients. At the edge of Bánk, near a decaying guardhouse and semaphore, we cross the narrow-gauge railway tracks again, followed immediately by the former Diósjenő-Romhány branch line, where the last passenger train ran in 2007. Not surprisingly, right in Bánk we meet the Bánk lake; around here, no village lacks some smaller standing water. “There is an astonishing lake beside the village that the local people call the Sea Eye,” writes a 200-year-old source. And indeed, local legend says that the lake is connected underground with the sea. The seven-hectare water surface is bordered by small fishing docks (our favorite is where a red cat regularly appears next to the anglers) – where there is no dock, there is either a beach or a stage. In recent years, two festivals have also been held on the shore of the Bánk lake ("the country’s biggest small festival") – the 2019 program also included it; though the Louis Armstrong Jazz Festival was canceled, a couple of statues of jazz greats remind of the music genre.

From Bánk to Rétság, you can cross via a dirt road accessible from the village’s last (westernmost) street. The settlement was a garrison town after opening the military barracks in 1936: various units were stationed here for six decades, until 1997. In nearby Tolmács, the wine cellar alley deserves a detour. It is perhaps no surprise that here, too, there is a ruined noble residence, the Szentiványi castle. From Tolmács, a dirt road leads to nearby Diósjenő – under rainy conditions, it is not advisable to attempt this (in that case, the busy main road number 2 must be used up to the Diósjenő junction)! If the road is passable, the eastern view of High Börzsöny is unforgettable. Diósjenő also has its own fish pond (of course!), whose curiosity is highlighted by a memorial stone stating, "Here Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher Roman emperor, battled the Quadi and Marcomanni." At the foot of Börzsöny, you can also try the pleasures offered by an adventure park before continuing to Nógrád, only a few kilometers away.