In the footsteps of the devil among vineyards

Itinerary

• From Harkány to Siklós, you must follow the bike path connecting the two settlements (brand new, perfectly smooth asphalt finished in November 2018 until the boundary of Siklós), then where the bike path ends, continue on the road until the Máriagyüd junction, from where another bike path leads straight towards the town center.
• In Siklós, the bike path leads to the town hall; from there, continue on the main street of the settlement (Széchenyi Street) towards the Újpetre junction – here turn left onto Rákóczi Street towards Újpetre.
• At the roundabout on the border of Siklós, continue straight towards Újpetre/Vokány.
• The unmistakable road leads to Újpetre, where at the intersection turn right towards Villány. Only deviate from the road towards Villány if you want to take a closer look at the wine cellar streets of Palkonya or Villánykövesd!
• In Villány, you should continue on the slightly winding but clearly followable main road, which runs through the center of the town along the wine cellar street, heading straight towards Siklós. From the sign marking the end of the inhabited area, a bike path leads to Nagyharsány, where it is worth following the bike route marked through small streets, as the main road is rather busy.
• From the boundary of Nagyharsány, the bike path leads through Kisharsány and Nagytótfalu to the roundabout near Siklós already known from the start of the route – from there, the route is the same as the section indicated at the beginning of the itinerary back to Harkány.

Detailed description of the route

The starting point of our tour, Harkány, owes its reputation to its bath – the bath was discovered by a worker who, while draining a swamp on the outskirts of the town in 1823, healed his aching leg by resting it in the warm water of a spring. A year later, construction of the bath began, and a few years later the first bath building stood. Today, the bath located in the ancient park in the town center uses sulfurous artesian water that has helped tens of thousands of people heal.

Religious diversity under the castle walls

The town is connected to Siklós by a bike path; from afar, the fortress, which has dominated the area since the 13th century, gleams white. Besides numerous notable Hungarian noble families, the Turks also owned the castle for 143 years, which was renovated in 2010-11. Among the old walls today, a weapons exhibition, torture chamber, furniture and wine collection, and an exhibition showing the culture of the Croat and Serbian minorities living in and around Siklós can be found; additionally, there is a visitor center welcoming guests. The Serbs have their own Orthodox church a few streets away, as do the local Muslims have a place for Friday prayers. Malkocs Bey’s mosque has survived from the Turkish occupation era, nowadays used by Muslim families who fled the Yugoslav wars according to its original purpose. (Another such mosque is nearby in Pécs, visited by the local Islamic community on Fridays and during Ramadan.)

The Máriagyüd belonging to Siklós is a pilgrimage site for Catholic believers. Since the 18th century, pilgrims have come to the Mary shrine due to miraculous healings and Marian apparitions. A round trip of 8 kilometers from Siklós center to visit the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is really worth it.

From Siklós, we head towards the gentle hills; Vokány is the next destination, now on the northern side of the Villány Hills. Until the Nagytótfalu junction, we follow the Three Rivers cycling route connecting Barcs and Mohács (which is also part of the EuroVelo 13 “Iron Curtain” route). From there to Vokány, we ride on the cycling route connecting Pécs to Osijek in Croatia for a few kilometers. The road first climbs between the vineyards towards Vokány, then after the saddle, a pleasant descent brings us to the surprisingly large settlement – overcoming the only significant elevation difference. In Árpád-era times, the site was home to the Trinitas Benedictine Abbey, but the monks fled to Siklós from the Turks and never returned.

Wine cellar streets under Golgotha

From Vokány, the road leads towards Újpetre. At the village boundary stands a small chapel dating back to 1757, and nearby, protected by a small group of trees, the Golgotha—that is, Christ and the two thieves on three sandstone crosses. It is worth resting for a few minutes in the small grove radiating endless peace. In the village, the local history house portrays the everyday life of the German minority that once lived here.

Leaving Újpetre along a charming avenue, we soon reach Palkonya. This one-street village surrounded by three fishponds is worth stopping at for two special sights – one is the round church in the village center, the other the wine cellar street. Let’s start with the former: the red-domed church was built by the Batthyány family and completed in 1816. Its excellent acoustics are regularly used on choir occasions, such as during the Pünkösdi Open Cellars events in Palkonya. The wine cellar street, located at the southern end of the village, consists of 53 press houses and a few short streets creating a unique atmosphere.

You can bike quickly to Villánykövesd, where the three-story wine cellar village deserves special mention. When travelling by train towards Mohács, Harkány (when the small railcar was still chugging there), or even Sarajevo, I spotted this local attraction from the window many times, deciding I had to see it up close. Some of the cellars’ distinctive colorful doors are open all year round to visitors, and the largest, the Batthyány cellar built in 1754, hosts the opening ceremony of the European Wine Song Festival every September. Families with children should also visit the large playground opposite the cellars. At the Villány side boundary of the village stands the brick factory, which visibly uses only a fraction of its former capacity.

Vineyards under the devil’s plowing

From Villánykövesd, we quickly reach Villány, the center of the wine region. The area has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, and since then various populations have cultivated the vineyards: the Celts, Romans, Hungarians after the conquest, Serbs after the Turkish occupation, and Germans. The past is represented by the Serbian Orthodox church and by the fact that in 2011 one-fifth of the town’s population declared German nationality. A unique atmospheric wine cellar street runs along the town’s main street, and it’s worth stopping to taste wines from smaller local wineries alongside a good slice of lard bread. The larger, more renowned wineries are mostly found on the western edge of town, where the architecturally very refined wineries offer not only fine wines but also gastronomic experiences.

The Szársomlyó hill rises above the town; its southwestern side looks just like fresh plowing. According to legend, the devil himself plowed the grooves in the hard rock of the hillside after setting his eye on a young woman named Harka, a foster daughter of an old witch living at the foot of the hill. The devil demanded one day that the witch (considered a sorceress by the village) give him her daughter. He tried and tried until the witch agreed on one condition: the devil had to plow the Harsány Hill overnight, by dawn cockcrow. It seemed impossible, but by dawn, it looked like the devil would manage with thirteen fiery hell goats. However, the witch grew so fond of the girl that she didn’t want to give her to the devil, so she crouched in the chicken coop and began crowing, waking up the neighbor cocks that joined in. The devil fled, the girl was saved, but the grooves remained on the hillside.

Sculptures on the hill

On the hillside, we can also see other sights – to the east, at Villány’s border, an abandoned quarry has accumulated non-figurative sculptures since 1967, created by sculptors working at the Villány artist colony over the past decades. On the western side, the quarry is still operational today, delivering raw material to the Beremend cement factory. Despite all this, the hill hosts valuable wildlife. About one-fifth of its vegetation is Mediterranean in character, and numerous species found here are not seen anywhere else in the country. These include the Hungarian autumn crocus, which is also part of the Villány wine region’s trademark. Among animals, the largest snake species native to Hungary, the potentially two-meter-long Aesculapian snake, is noteworthy; its only other known population in Hungary is in the Buda Hills.

At the foot of the hill, the beautifully maintained vineyards dominate. At the southernmost wine region in Hungary, mainly red grapes are cultivated in the wineries. Typical varieties include Portugieser, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon, Merlot, Kékfrankos, Pinot Noir, and Syrah; among the white grapes, Olaszrizling dominates. The annual 2100-2150 hours of sunshine have their effect year after year, producing excellent Villány wines in any of the wine region’s settlements.

Rolling under the devil’s plowing, we reach Nagyharsány from Villány. At the town’s boundary, the bike path diverts the cyclist into a side street, but the painted village’s reformed church can only be visited if we continue on the main road. The 13th-century building can be accessed after borrowing the church key from a nearby farm. The church is one stop on the Zrínyi-Suleiman thematic route, a project funded by the EU aimed at linking separate 16th-17th-century Hungarian-Croatian and Ottoman cultural and built heritage elements into a common thematic route, touching numerous settlements from Varaždin to Čakovec, Nagykanizsa, Pécs, and Osijek. From Nagyharsány to Kisharsány, we cycle over the field on a bike path, then continue surrounded by vineyards towards Siklós after leaving the settlement.

We reach the already known settlement at the Újpetre junction; from here, our route is the same as the one previously described back to Harkány. The almost 55-kilometer loop is mostly on low-traffic roads or bike paths; only the Újpetre–Villány section is slightly busier than the others, but despite this, we highly recommend the route to anyone, who can relax a bit at the Siklós or Harkány bath at the end of the ride.

Cycling routes in the region

During our tour, we crossed the Three Rivers cycling route several times, which connects Barcs to Villány and links the Drava, Mura, and Danube rivers. Several maps are available on the route’s website, as well as lists of bike shops and rental services in the area.

The Three Rivers route largely overlaps with the EuroVelo 13 international cycling route; therefore, plenty of information can be found about it on the aforementioned website. The Iron Curtain route runs along Hungary’s western and southern borders from Lake Fertő to Mohács.

The cycling route connecting Pécs and Osijek, marked with signs, mostly runs on low-traffic roads on both sides of the border, and along the way, you’ll often encounter information boards highlighting local attractions to (cycling) tourists.