On two wheels at the top of Transdanubia

Itinerary

• Start facing the entrance of the railway station on Szelestey László Street towards the city center. Turn left onto the bike path along the Gyöngyös stream bank, then right on Szent Márton Street towards the Main Square!
• From the Main Square, approach the bishop's palace and the basilica via Széchenyi István Street. From here, through Szily János Street, you can reach Paragvári Street – from this point, navigation becomes much simpler because you continue straight to the center of Gencsapáti; keep this direction also at roundabouts along the way (in both cases towards Gencsapáti).
• In Gencsapáti, turn left onto Gyöngyös Street to approach Saint Well (there is a sign indicating the direction)! The asphalt road turns into a good quality dirt road at the village boundary; this leads to the sanctuary. After the detour, proceed north through Gencsapáti, then Gyöngyösfalu and Lukácsháza on small, low-traffic side roads parallel to route 87.
• From Lukácsháza, the road leads through Kőszegdoroszló to Kőszegszerdahely, where at the first significant junction turn right towards Kőszeg.
• Turn left towards Cák at Csikó Csárda from the Kőszeg road! Go straight along the main street of the village to the Cák, Pincesor bus stop, where you must turn sharply left to approach the historic complex. You can return to the road to Kőszeg from Cák towards Csikó Csárda, or continue north along Petőfi Street and then on the dirt road without turning off either way.
• In Kőszeg, it’s worth aiming for the Main Square. Leaving the city, cycle on Cemetery Street, then Liberty Road up to the Szabóhegy junction, then turn right uphill onto the Panorama Boulevard! On the serpentines, at the first significant forest junction (recognizable also by an old ski lift), turn left onto the one-way freshly renovated forest road (Terv út)!
• Do not turn off the mountain road in any direction – this is how you reach the Hörmann spring, the highest point of the route. On the way back, roll down the same road to the Velem junction, then turn right at the junction towards Velem.
• Cycle straight through the houses of Velem. In Kőszegszerdahely, turn right at the church towards Bozsok.
• Cycle straight through Bozsok and then Bucsu – in the latter, at the small roundabout, keep right, then (after leaving the village) roll under the overpass of road 89 and turn left towards Torony! From here, the road leads straight through the villages of Torony and Sé to Szombathely city center.

Detailed description of the route

The route practically starts at the railway station but effectively more from the city center, next to the Holy Trinity statue and the city's fountain depicting fauns. You only need to roll a corner to reach the bishop's palace and the cathedral – where the enormous interior spaces are not visible from outside, and the church tower is open for visits a few times daily. You can take a detour to the Boating Lake and the Vasi Skanzen, but we head towards the kámoni arboretum, shadowed by the protected black pine avenue of Paragvári Street, heading for Kőszeg. The plant collection was established in the 1860s by Mihály Saághy, the area’s owner – thanks to him, today we can enjoy the shade of oak trees, maples, and swamp cypresses on the two banks of the Gyöngyös stream on hot summer days.

Before leaving the county seat of Vas, let's travel back almost two thousand years! Numerous relics tell the city's ancient past: the ancient Savaria owed its foundation to the Amber Road, a trade route from Northern Europe to the Mediterranean, with amber as the main commodity (but it also served as a supply line for the Roman army). Elevated to colonia status in 43 AD, the city grew rapidly, mainly inhabited by merchants and veterans of the XV Apollinaris legion. From the 2nd century, it functioned as a provincial religious center and then as a provincial capital in Roman times; the widely known saint, Martin of Tours, was born here in 316. Savaria flourished around the early 4th century before the barbarian invasions, the city's capture by Huns, and finally an earthquake in 456 ended this era.

Many Roman relics can still be found in the city today. The largest and most famous of these is the Iseum, or Isis temple. Isis, the best-known Egyptian goddess – whose consort is Osiris (the god of the afterlife) and son Horus (divine embodiment of royal power), an affiliation that was already esteemed among ancient Egyptian gods – was worshiped widely across Europe and the Near East. The building complex erected for Isis in Szombathely is the third largest (only the temples in Alexandria and Rome were larger). Today, the museum built around it introduces visitors to Roman-era religious life in Pannonia, especially the 'eastern cults' daily life. Next to the sanctuary, Roman relics can be found in the lapidarium of the Savaria Museum, under the glass floor of a bank branch on the Main Square, and in the Járdányi Paulovics István Roman Park. Behind the cathedral on land with a customs station road intersection, you can walk on millennia-old basalt slabs and admire a fragmented mosaic floor from the 4th century. The Roman period is commemorated each year on the last weekend of August by the Savaria Historical Carnival, and during the route, you will also find further ancient relics.

Returning to the present, after crossing a busy roundabout, we leave Szombathely and arrive in Gencsapáti. The village’s attraction is the Saint Well just outside its border. It's worth making a detour of about 4 kilometers – turning left from the main street of the village, crossing the Gyöngyös then Perint streams, surrounded by large tree nurseries, you can roll to the miracle-working spring. According to legend, a couple built a chapel above the spring in memory of their blind child's eyes opening after washing in the spring water. Today, around the chapel, there's a calvary, 14 small station chapels, and a Lourdes cave offering opportunities for contemplation.

After Gencsapáti, we pass through Gyöngyösfalu, where the Holdfényliget Adventure Park awaits thrill-seekers with numerous programs from a forest zip line course to a courage jump, barefoot experience trail, and giant swing. After recharging with adrenaline, we ride through Lukácsháza, already part of the Írottkő Nature Park. This 16-village association aims to preserve local cultural values, nature, and environmental protection – all that represents value both for locals and visitors. Moreover, it is paired with tourism development, not just a slogan, as there is a wide range of cultural and other programs to choose from (we received the program brochure at our accommodation, but you can also browse offers on the Nature Park website). Those spending at least three nights in the Írottkő Nature Park area can get the Kőszeg-Írottkő Tourist Card free of charge, which entitles them to various discounts in the Geschriebenstein Nature Park across the border.

Leaving Lukácsháza, we reach the first uphill section to Kőszegszerdahely. We start climbing under the dam of Lukácsháza’s flood reservoir, which is only a warm-up for the later stages. We take the next break in Cák, where we reach the historic cellar row at the end of a climb. The eight cellars, dating from the 19th century and now serving as an open-air museum, are interesting because they were not dug into the ground but hide as tiny huts in the shade of sprawling trees. There is no more vineyard in the immediate vicinity of the cellars (the phylloxera wiped out the vineyards at the end of the 19th century), but the road meanders among beautifully cultivated fields northeast of the village towards Kőszeg. Before departure, it’s worth filling your bottles at the plentiful Hordómosó spring.

Kőszeg usually brings to mind the city’s 1532 Turkish siege and the heroism of Miklós Jurisics and his soldiers. Against 60–70,000 Turkish attackers, a small fortress defended successfully for twenty days with a few hundred soldiers and about 700 serfs who fled there. Finally, after a symbolic surrender of the castle, the Ottoman army marched on Vienna about a month later, where due to the delay, a large army awaited them, making the siege considerably harder (and where Suleiman's dagger broke).

The downtown of Kőszeg today looks like visiting a small Austrian town. The west side of the Main Square is dominated by the neo-Gothic Sacred Heart Parish Church, while the other sides have cafes, pastry shops, and restaurants waiting for guests or those sitting out on the terraces. The medieval city center is reached by rolling through the Gates of Heroes – Jurisics Square holds the town hall, city fountain, the Renaissance-era Sgraffito House, and the Golden Unicorn Pharmacy Museum. Pharmacy history enthusiasts are also attracted by another unique institution in Hungary, the Black Moor Pharmacy Museum. Those more interested in the fortress defended by Jurisics can approach it via a small street opposite the Gothic elements of Saint James Church’s gate, and visit the permanent and temporary exhibitions inside.

Climbing the surrounding hills, visiting the Calvary Church, or the Bechtold István Nature Conservation Visitor Centre is recommended. At the Őrség National Park exhibition site, you can learn more about the unique flora of the Kőszeg Mountains, and the surrounding Chernel Garden is essentially the second, small (2.5-hectare) arboretum on the tour, containing a bird rescue station. The former is a bigger sight, the latter a smaller detour towards the Panorama Boulevard, which offers a steep climb into the interior of the Kőszeg Mountains.

The easternmost outcrop of the Alps, the Kőszeg Mountains, built mainly of crystalline slate, is among the older mountain ranges in Hungary, estimated to have formed about 400 million years ago during the Devonian period. About one third of the mountain range belongs to Hungary, of which 85% is covered by forest. This is good news for cycling travelers in the summer heat, who can face significant altitude differences from Kőszeg to Velem. The exact amount depends on the chosen route, but it’s worth noting that Írottkő (883 meters) is also the highest point of Transdanubia. After overcoming quite a bit of elevation on the Panorama Boulevard, you reach the turnoff to Terv út. Here we turned left towards Velem but you could also climb to the Seven Springs and then continue towards the Styrian Houses to the mentioned water supply point. The former option has two big advantages: you can ride on practically smooth asphalt to the Hörmann spring, and the road to the Velem junction is one-way – we especially appreciated this when, after the junction, we encountered surprisingly heavy traffic coming towards us on the forest road. It is completely baffling that the forest road penetrating the heart of the Kőszeg Mountains is open to anyone, and even tourist buses came towards us there. Turning off to the Saint Vitus Chapel offers a bit of peace by temporarily leaving the asphalt behind. The chapel once stood on the site of a Roman watchtower; near it, you find the Blue Trail memorial column (once the starting point of the famous hiking trail). Returning to the asphalt, several more kilometers of climbing still lie ahead on the concrete strip. Fortunately, Írottkő is not accessible by vehicle; from the parking lot near the Hörmann spring, you can climb to the lookout on the Austrian-Hungarian border. You cannot cycle all the way to the summit following the Blue Trail, but three alternatives await: lock your bike at the parking, push it on the hiking trail, or look for a forest road that can reach the target.

Whichever you choose, first you will enjoy a wonderful view, then a long descent via Velem to Kőszegszerdahely. From the village center, we head towards Bozsok, where two more small challenges await in the form of two hills, but from the village today hosting the Sibrik Castle Hotel and the ruined Batthyány Castle, you just need to roll down again to the Bucsu traffic memorial. One of the former railway guards’ houses of the Szombathely-Pinkafő railway line (Hungary’s last train on the line ran in 1959) holds a small exhibition preserving the memory of the vicinal railway. Those wishing to visit the exhibition must carefully calculate their arrival: it is officially open only on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings (although you can register for other times via the email on Bucsu municipality’s website). Next to the guardhouse, a Roman-era aqueduct excavation is open day and night – the structure served Savaria by transporting water from the Rohonci springs to the provincial center.