On the railway's path, along the Rába in the Little Hungarian Plain

Itinerary

• Step out from the station in Szombathely and head towards the city center along Szelestey László Street opposite the main entrance, then upon reaching the roundabout, turn left onto Király Street, which leads straight to the Main Square.
• Exit the Main Square along Széchenyi István Street - Berzsenyi Dániel Square - Hollán Ernő Street - Kiskar Street route, then after leaving the dense city center, continue the tour on Mátyás király Street - Rumi Road.
• On Külső Rumi Road there is already a pedestrian and bicycle path and almost the entire route has some sort of cycling infrastructure until the border of Rum. Upon reaching Rum, where the bike path ends, keep right (Szombathelyi Street), then turn left onto Béke Street at the end of the street.
• At the roundabout in the center of Rum, continue straight towards Sárvár. The road leads directly to Sárvár (with a detour to the hydropower plant in Ikervár).
• Upon arriving in Sárvár, it is worth turning right after leaving the industrial park and at the first opportunity after the gas station onto Ungvár Street, then at the first major intersection turn left; from here Nádasdy Ferenc Street leads straight to the castle.
• From the castle, the railway station can be reached via Kossuth Square - Batthyány Street - Hunyadi János Street route.

Detailed description of the tour

We start our tour from the railway station of one of our country's oldest towns. As Szombathely's ancient predecessor Savaria, its importance was greatly contributed to by its location beside the Amber Road, so in the 19th century its rise was thanks to the development of the railway. As early as 1865, the Vienna–Sopron–Szombathely–Nagykanizsa railway line reached the town, soon after which connections to Budapest and Graz were established, and later the Vas county seat also became the starting point of several local interest railways. The town once had a tram running through it; the Szombathely public railway line wound up to Kálvária.

Walls under the glass floor

Following a short detour into local transport history, let's return to Roman times: the Amber Road connected the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea, transporting mainly the amber stone from the north to the rest of the empire on this north-south route. Savaria was a significant city, religious center of Upper Pannonia, later the seat of the province Pannonia Prima at the end of the Roman Empire. Numerous relics testify to the Romans' presence, among which the Iseum, the Isis sanctuary, stands out, uncovered by chance in 1955 on a construction site. The remarkable archaeological find indicates that this could have been the center of the Isis cult in the Danube region. The largest sacred archaeological find in Pannonia can be seen in the exhibition 'Home of Isis in Savaria'; moreover, the Savaria Historical Carnival annually tries to show something from nearly two thousand years ago, traces of which can be admired under the glass floor of a bank branch on the Main Square.

You need to jump more than a thousand years in time to talk again about a truly significant city. After the Romans, the Huns, Eastern Goths, Lombards, Avars, and Slavic peoples followed at the beginning of this period – the same happened in the town as in much of the Carpathian Basin. It received city rights from King Sigismund in 1407, but the real boost to development came when it became the seat of Vas county at the end of the 16th century, and later when Maria Theresa established the Diocese of Szombathely, making the settlement a bishop's seat in 1777.

Rolling through the downtown, you mainly see traces of more recent eras (and also later ones): the first bishop, János Szily, built the Assumption Cathedral, the bishop's palace, and shortly after, the county hall. The Main Square may have had this shape already in the 13th century where markets were held every Saturday, the town’s name originates from these markets. In summer, a fountain cooling the heat and a solemn Holy Trinity statue, commemorating the plague epidemic of 1711, stand in the middle of the square. A much happier reminder is the small yellow tram car in the courtyard of the Smidt Museum, recalling the tram service from 1897 to 1974 in the town. The 1000 mm gauge trams traveled from the railway station through the entire downtown to Kálvária. The museum itself has an interesting history: it started from a private collection founded by local doctor Lajos Smidt in the 20th century. Knowing and appreciating the doctor's passion for collecting, he received numerous gifts from his patients, including several from noble families in Transdanubia (Batthyány, Bezerédj, Cziráky, Erdődy) that enriched the collection, located near the county hall and the bishop's palace.

Nearby, behind the bishop's palace and cathedral, there is the Ruin Garden where archaeologists uncovered remains of the ancient Roman city officially named Colonia Claudia Savariensium. The imperial palace (its reception room adorned with a huge mosaic) hosted several emperors at the twilight of the Roman Empire; there was also a bathhouse and a sanctuary of Mercurius on the site. Perhaps the greatest experience is walking on the remains of the Amber Road where Roman soldiers once marched and Roman citizens hurried to a sanctuary, the forum, or the amphitheater.

Let's pedal to Rum!

Heading southeast from downtown along Rumi Road, you reach Gyöngyöshermány (part of the county seat since 1950) and then almost continuously pedal on a pedestrian and bike path up to Rum, though at certain points it is worth detouring. For example, in Táplánszentkereszt the church in the Gyöngyösszentkereszt part of the village dates back to the 13th century (though due to rebuilds it is not easy to notice today), and the village boasts four smaller castles (though none of them are of tourist significance or open to visitors). In neighboring Tanakajd, a castle can also be found (also not visitable), but the next settlement, Vasszécseny, has two castles in good condition that have survived historical storms, so it is worth detouring off the bike path for their sake.

Rum-Ebergény Castle is rumored to be haunted, with some reporting screams, rattling, whispering or footsteps, others seeing fleeting shadows or stranger faces appearing in photos. Certainly, the castle and its background go back several centuries and are full of twists: before the castle was built, a smaller fort probably stood here, which was likely destroyed after the Rákóczi War of Independence, with only the moats and the bridge over them possibly remaining. One of the most beautiful baroque castles in Vas county was built by settlers from Ebergény in the mid-18th century and today serves as an event venue. There is another manor house in the village, the New Ebergény Castle built around 1790 in Empire style, functioning as a hotel and event venue. The fact that there are two castles in one village, also owned by the same family, may be because the Ebergény family divided the estate. Between the two castles stands an abandoned but protected granary on the edge of a larger meadow.

In Vasszécseny we come back to the route of the former Szombathely–Rum railway (the station building and wooden goods warehouse of the settlement still stand). The 22-kilometer-long branch line was built by the Transdanubian HÉV and operated between 1894 and 1974, serving the villages along its route. The local railway transported regional products (cereals, sugar beet, etc.) and livestock, and the Rum woodworks and distillery were important customers of the railway. The local people traveled to the county seat for work and marketplaces, while the residents of Szombathely went to the Rába bank in Rum for rest and bathing. The affected villages loved the railway dearly, as several memorial sites can be found along the former track—this is no different for Csempeszkopác either. A small garden was arranged around the station with a short track segment and a commemorative plaque between the rails, benches for resting, and even a "tree of happiness" on which anyone can write on a note what brought them joy.

In Csempeszkopác, it is worth making a short detour to the village to visit a beautiful medieval church. In front of the sanctuary and nave built of red brick rises an elegant, whitewashed tower: one of the finest examples of Árpád-era village church architecture stands on the little hill surrounded by a hedge. The decorative arched gate, the tower's twin windows, and the cornice with arc motifs are equally worth admiring; inside, the wall paintings and the altar painted by István Dorffmeister can be seen.

Adventures along the Rába

The former railway line and the bike path end in Rum. Appropriately, the first half of the tour can be closed with a visit here: at the end of the line rises a locomotive house and a connected water house—as well as a wooden goods warehouse and a former guardhouse nearby, surrounded by a characteristic MÁV fence. Leaving Rum, the tour continues on a low-traffic road towards Sárvár, with a recommended stop in Ikervár—at the border of the settlement, by the Rába. The country's first hydropower plant operates here, worth making a detour for; it is an unusual curiosity and there is also a museum nearby dedicated to this industrial heritage site more than 120 years old, still in operation. The Ikervár hydropower plant was built between 1896 and 1900 by commission of the Batthyány family, initially producing direct current, later—after installing a transformer—converting the energy obtained here to alternating current.

After a short industrial history detour, we head towards Sárvár. Along the way, we pass Csényéújmajor, where a chapel housing a Lourdes cave attracts attention on the left side of the road. Approaching Sárvár, it is worth starting from the half side and can also be reached via smaller, low-traffic streets, avoiding the need to choose the main road through the town. The fortress bears the name of the Nádasdy family, though it had numerous owners over the centuries. It undeniably took its present shape with five Italian bastions during the 16th century when the Nádasdy family owned and strengthened the castle during the struggle against the Turks. However, Francis Nádasdy III became involved a century later in the Wesselényi conspiracy, for which he was sentenced to death and loss of property, so the castle changed owners multiple times again until 1945. Today, the entire fortress can be explored extensively, and guided tours can be requested to make the visit an enjoyable time travel—as the town's website states. In the castle, the grand Baroque frescoes of the ceremonial hall, the legacy of the last owners the Wittelsbach family, a glass exhibition, and a hussar exhibition can be seen.

Only a few meters from the castle is the arboretum. Spread over nearly 10 hectares, this nationally significant protected natural area hosts 300 tree and shrub species. Its origins date back to 1546, when it was founded as an orchard and vegetable garden. Its immediate predecessor was the English park established in the first half of the 19th century, where yews, acacias, and ashes were typically planted, and some of the giant plane trees with trunk diameters exceeding three meters stem from this initial planting. A fitting end to the tour can be a relaxing time at the Sárvár spa, where medicinal pools (two types of medicinal water also flow from the depths in the area), a family adventure pool, sauna world, and from May to September a beach await the tired cyclist travelers.