Roller coaster ride in Göcsej

Itinerary

• From the railway station in Zalaegerszeg, first head along Göcseji Road and Platán Row to the open-air museum, then from there towards the city center – part of the path includes a bike lane. Leave the city center north along Batthyány Lajos Street and follow the main road up to a roundabout!
• From the roundabout, head out towards Nekeresd, then continue on the bike lane to Pózva! Cross straight through the settlement part, then turn right onto Vasút Street, cross the main road and turn left onto Őrház Street!
• Follow the former railway line straight to Zalaszentiván – from the administrative boundary of the settlement this is also a superb quality bike path leading to the center. At the road at the western border of the settlement, turn left towards Zalaszentlőrinc!
• After passing through Zalaszentlőrinc, turn left at Vasboldogasszony towards Egervár!
• In Egervár, cross road 74, enter the side street opposite the church to avoid cycling on the main road along the football pitch. After the football pitch, turn left onto the paved road, then at the Y junction turn right towards Lakhegy. After climbing the hill, turn left beside the cemetery. At the meeting of dirt roads, turn right; the road leads straight to Nagypáli.
• In Nagypáli, upon reaching the main street, turn right, then in Kispáli at the bus turnaround turn left! On the border of Ságod, turn right at the bend, then reach the main street of the village (Ságodi Road) via a side road, from where turn right onto Tó Street rolling towards the campground. Before the campground, turn left on a path leading to the lakeshore and then continue along the shore.
• Turn right on Gébárti Road to reach Andráshida, where at the large intersection turn left towards the center. After crossing the railway, turn right at the first opportunity towards Pórszombat.
• In Teskánd and Dobronhegy, cut straight across, then after the Dobronhegyi switchback turn left towards Milejszeg!
• After Milejszeg, keep left, then in the center of Csonkahegyhát turn right towards Kustánszeg. At a Y junction at the border of Csonkahegyhát, aim left at Kustánszeg!
• At Becsvölgyén, upon reaching the junction, continue diagonally left (Arany János Street, then Kopácsai Road)!
• After Gombosszeg, at the road junction turn left towards Zalaegerszeg!
• In Nagylengyel, follow the main road which leads to Gellénháza.
• At the crossroads in Gellénháza, turn left towards Zalaegerszeg!
• Leaving Gellénháza, at the bottom of the slope, turn left towards Bazita.
• At the Bazita TV tower, turn onto the forestry road blocked by a barrier and cycle down it to the paved road in the valley! From here, continue straight along Alsóerdei and then Göcseji Road to reach the railway station.

Detailed description of the tour

The gems of Zalaegerszeg

We start our Göcsej route from the Egerszeg railway station and immediately explore the city center. Compared to other county centers, the county town of Zala has a perhaps more modest modern history: the city of almost 60,000 started to become a real local center in the 18th century; around three-quarters of the county assemblies were held here at that time (during the Turkish era, matters concerning the county were rather discussed in the seemingly safer Körmend and Sümeg). Nevertheless, the town showed more of a market town character for a long time, with Kanizsa and Keszthely serving as the economic and cultural centers even in the 19th century. The industrialization after World War II gave the city a significant boost, yet it still preserves somewhat of a small-town atmosphere. Our first destination telling about the past and the changes in the 20th century is the open-air museum and the oil industry museum.

The Göcsej Village Museum awaits visitors in an atmospheric environment next to a backwater of the Zala River, around an old watermill, only a few minutes from the city center. It is the country's first open-air ethnographic museum, collecting 40 buildings from 22 settlements, displaying hundreds of furnishings. The watermill, the distillery hut, the stables, and barns create an impression of a still living settlement at first glance. Next door to the open-air museum stands the Hungarian Oil and Gas Industry Museum, where you can wander among imposing oil drilling towers, various mysterious vehicles, and numerous pumps, learning about the history of Zala oil. It might be worth joining a guided tour as the information on place is limited on the boards. (The open-air museum and Oil and Gas Industry Museum can be visited with one ticket.)

From the open-air museum, we roll through the city center to leave the inhabited areas – it's worth slowing down near Deák Square. Here once stood the marsh-surrounded castle of Zalaegerszeg, which gained importance after Kanizsa fell into Turkish hands. The baroque county hall building was erected here between 1730 and 1732; also located here are the Maria Magdalene Parish Church and the Göcsej Museum. We leave the city on the map through the district called Nekeresd, then after Pózva take a former railway track, where trains ran from Ukk to Zalaegerszeg until a route correction in 1968. In Zalaszentiván, turn north right beside a former railway building towards Vasboldogasszony.

From castles to oil derricks

The next stop is Egervár – the village's name suggests something, and indeed you will find an impressive Renaissance fortress here. The castle stood already in the 13th century, with a turbulent history: it was owned by the Nádasdy and Széchenyi families, played an important fortress role during the Turkish era, and was repeatedly devastated by fire. The beautifully renovated building now houses a visitor center and a castle hotel (operating April to October), and during summers, open-air theatre performances called Egervári Esték are held in the castle courtyard. Just a few hundred meters from the dazzling white fortress stands a brick-red church – its pointed arch windows betray its Gothic origin. Although the building appears huge in the small village, its proportions show at first glance that it was not built as a parish church, as it was originally part of a Franciscan monastery, the church built at the end of the 15th century. The west façade guarding the entrance was later rebuilt in Baroque style, causing some stylistic mix. From here, climb up to the Pince Hill on the village's western edge – despite the small elevation difference, it is a real climb offering a taste of the Göcsej hills' atmosphere.

Leaving the small vineyard southwards, we reach the northern border of the county town passing first Nagypáli then Kispáli, arriving at the district of Ságod, known mostly for the AquaCity Water Slide and Adventure Park and the Gébárti Lake. Not far from the southern shore of the lake, another attraction is emerging: a chapel designed by Imre Makovecz in the woods. After Ságod, bypass the town from the north through Andráshida and Teskánd towards the Göcsej hills.

Near Teskánd, a few hundred-meter detour is needed to reach the Saint Helena Chapel. This small, seemingly insignificant building was once the church of the former village of Dobron, with foundations dating back to the 13th century. Beside it, a giant linden tree guards the building and the surrounding graves (burials as late as the 1960s). After Dobronhegy, you face a real small hairpin, starting the Göcsej roller coaster ride. The road climbs up to Kandikó at 302 meters, the highest point of Göcsej (on clear days, you can admire some higher peaks of the Alps from here), but the route leads towards Milejszeg. The typical scattered village structure of the small village Göcsej microregion resembles that of the nearby Őrség, consisting of clusters of five to ten houses called szegek. Göcsej has another peculiarity: rich hydrocarbon deposits lie beneath its northern and eastern territories. At the border of Milejszeg, we encounter the first oil derrick, followed by many more.

Speeding to the lookout tower

At the border of Csonkahegyhát, from beside the water tower, we can cast a glance at the Zala hills; in the distance, one of our last stops, the slender metal structure of the Bazita TV tower rises, but before reaching it, we still have to cover several kilometers and elevation gains. Near Kustánszeg, we glide into the village next to the Göcsej Ring, a demolition derby track (the climbs are balanced by descents where reaching the speed limit allowed by traffic rules for cyclists is not difficult), where a lake invites anglers, and here we encounter for the first time a wooden bell tower typical of the area, resisting time for one and a half centuries. In the garden of the Roman Catholic church in Becsvölgyén, we find a bell tower, and opposite the Reformed church, an interesting rest place: behind the street front of a former farmhouse hides a semi-covered construction furnished with tables, which is an excellent tourist attraction for consuming a sandwich.

Between Nagylengyel and Gellénháza, the NL-1 borehole reminds us of the start of oil production in the Nagylengyel oil field in 1951, and in the background, stylishly hiding among the hills, is the so-called main collector near MOL Ormándlak, where crude oil extracted in the area is prepared for refining. In the market square of Gellénháza, we also find a monument in the form of a complete oil derrick – showing how much the nearby villages have meant (or meant) living above a hydrocarbon field, which gave the local and even people arriving from farther away the opportunity for work and thus growth.

Leaving the Hungarian Texas behind, we roll to the edge of Zalaegerszeg, then climb the last 100 meters of elevation to the Bazita TV tower. The 95-meter-high tower hosts a café and lookout, accessible by a lift for a small fee, allowing us to admire the landscape from 53 meters high, which we have explored before. (In Hungary, the TV towers of Kékestető and Misinamenön can be visited in a similar way besides the one in Zalaegerszeg.) We descend along a pleasant forest management road from the hilltop and on the way to the railway station, we can still stop by the Azalea Valley, where in the 1970s thousands of rhododendrons were planted by the Zalaegerszeg Forestry workers. The valley is at its most beautiful during blooming at the end of April and beginning of May, but at any other time it exudes infinite tranquility, making it an ideal place to rest at the end of a long route.