Wandering in the Keszthely Hills

Itinerary

• When you exit Keszthely railway station, turn right and roll along Kazinczy Street to the second railway crossing, then push your bike over the labyrinth barriers, crossing the tracks; get back in the saddle and turn left at Csík Ferenc promenade – here you are cycling on the Balaton bike circuit.
• Follow the Balaton bike circuit to Balatongyörök, then upon reaching the pier and the Györök railway stop, turn left and cycle across the tracks. To reach the Györök Lookout, turn right immediately at the first corner (next to the church) onto Eötvös Károly Street – the entire street winds through the settlement leading to a hilltop with wonderful panoramic views.
• From the lookout head back along Eötvös Károly Street, but don’t roll all the way down to the shore: turn right at Kisfaludy Sándor Street; this leads to the roundabout on Route 71 (you can push your bike for the last few meters on the sidewalk), which you must leave towards Mogyorós Street.
• Mogyorós Street leads straight to the Snake Valley; from here, continue straight on the asphalt road crossing the forest to Vállus (the last approx. 2 km is on a gravel road) – cycle route signs at the junctions will help find the correct direction towards Zalaszántó.
• Pass straight through Vállus, then continue straight at the village edge junction towards Várvölgy. At the big bend in Várvölgy, keep going straight (leaving the main road) if you want to see the local church – otherwise, continue on the main road to the Zalaszántó junction, where turn right.
• Arriving at Zalaszántó, Zsidi Street merges into the Main Street – turn right here, then at the junction near a small chapel, turn left onto Ádám Street and follow the K tourist sign on the hillside roads to the stupa.
• From the stupa, descend back to Zalaszántó via the car route – upon reaching the village boundary, turn right on Main Street and continue through the village, following the main road towards Keszthely.
• At the end of the Zalaszántó connector road, turn left towards Keszthely/Hévíz.
• Entering the border of Keszthely, turn right towards Hévíz (to Hévízi Road), then at the next intersection keep right. At Hévíz border, turn right again (“Centrum”) onto Széchenyi Street, then left onto Rákóczi Street, which leads to one of the entrances of the spa. From here, follow the bike path to Keszthely, which is well marked (Route 1 and EuroVelo 13).
• After crossing Route 71, you can choose one of two directions (both bike paths lead to Keszthely center), turn left here – the bike path ends at the Keszthely border, but the correct direction towards the castle and downtown is clearly marked (Csák György Street-Balassa Bálint Street-Pál Street-Bástya Street-Sopron Street).
• From the castle, a bike path leads to the Main Square, from where built infrastructure leads to the railway station as well (Erzsébet Királyné Road-Kazinczy Street).

Detailed description of the tour

The tour starts from Keszthely, but we will get to know the town in more detail only after returning to the loop. It is worth noting beforehand that Keszthely considers itself the main city of Balaton (Siófok and Balatonfüred surely think otherwise) – it could definitely bear the title of the capital of the western basin of the lake without dispute. The city's history and visitors predestine it for this title: it has a millennia-old past, with Celts living here before the Romans, and before them Bronze Age and Neolithic peoples inhabited the shore of Balaton. Thanks to the Festetics family, Keszthely rose among the towns of Zala county in the 18th century, becoming the center of a huge estate. The family members successively founded a hospital, a grammar school, and an agricultural college (Georgikon). Bath life started to develop in the reform era, but the Southern Railway, opened in 1861, bypassed the city – just like the associated industrialization. However, it became a popular bathing place and retains this status to this day.

Leave the Balaton behind you!

We leave the town on the Balaton bike circuit heading west before turning towards the Keszthely Hills. The bike path sometimes appears a bit haphazard, but at least you cannot get lost; there are many cyclist rest stops for refreshments, and in Vonyarcvashegy you can ride directly along the lake shore for a short section. At Balatongyörök we leave the circuit and immediately face a smaller challenge as we pedal up to the Lookout at the eastern end of the village from the shore. At the base of the climb, through the fence, we can admire the Festetics Castle, which was built as the summer residence of Count Sándor Festetics in 1931. The elevation difference is not too significant – just a few short, steeper segments – but the view from the little hill is truly beautiful. As Károly Eötvös wrote in his work "Travel Around Balaton": "I will never forget the moment I saw this fairyland... I stopped as if my legs had taken root." – says a sign under the pines. Indeed: on the horizon, the tat witness hills of the Balaton Uplands line the water surface, while the Somogy hills ripple in the distance on the southern shore. Below the Lookout hill, we find the Roman Spring (a stone staircase leads down to it), whose name refers to its origin: a villa and its associated bath stood here during Roman times. A Dominican monastery once stood on the hill, and the black pines were planted by Maria Hamilton, wife of Tasziló Festetics.

Filled with views of Balaton, we set off for the Keszthely Hills – luckily, we don’t need to roll back to the shore, gaining some altitude and thus less climbing. We leave Balatongyörök in the Snake Valley, where a moderately poor-quality forest road leads all the way to Vállus. The road climbs somewhat sneakily to the Büdöskút rest area, which is also the watershed, meaning from here to Vállus a descent is guaranteed. Before that, it’s worth taking a rest or even climbing a bit higher, as the Padkű Lookout is only a few hundred meters from the Büdöskútpuszta road intersection (where, according to some sources, wild boar farming and foal breeding operated in the early 20th century).

The well-deserved rest is then followed by a pleasant roll, but caution is needed as the asphalt road quality leaves something to be desired, and at any time a forestry vehicle may come from the opposite direction. Where the asphalt road turns left, we continue straight towards Vállus (direction signs assist orientation) on a gravel but good-quality forest road. Vállus is a small dead-end village which we quickly pass through, also because a little momentum helps for the climb leading out of the settlement. Upon reaching the road connecting Lesencetomaj with Zalaszántó, you get a beautiful view of the surrounding hills, and on one of the distant hills the white cone of the Zalaszántó stupa, the furthest point from Balaton of our tour, is visible.

Before Zalaszántó, we pass through Várvölgy – if someone does not want to continue by momentum, it is strongly recommended to visit the St. Dominic Church, which requires continuing straight for a few hundred meters at a hairpin bend in the middle of the village. The church was originally built in Gothic style in the 14th century during the reign of Charles Robert, but was partly destroyed during Turkish rule. The tower and sanctuary remained, and in the 18th century a nave was built between them, later rebuilt in neo-Gothic style in 1899. From outside, the church looks somewhat strange in its overall appearance, showing elements of its medieval origin alongside style features barely a hundred years old – and inside, Gothic elements stand out in the sanctuary.

Turning right towards Zalaszántó, the stupa rises above the village, while the ruins of Rezi Castle watch over the valley road from the left. Where a castle once stood now lies a pile of stones: only a fragment of the residential tower and some wall parts remain from the fortress built in the 13-14th centuries, which was already mentioned as a ruin in sources from 1592. Upon arriving at Zalaszántó, the climb to the Buddhist temple begins on the village main street. Within the settlement, the ascent to the 316-meter-high Világosvár Hill – where the stupa is located – starts, but suddenly a magnificent whitewashed church appears on the left side of the road. The “temple” (as locals call it), dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian, faces the street with its sanctuary. Expert eyes immediately recognize it was built in Gothic style – or at least this was the beginning of construction, which must have been prolonged, as evidenced by the Renaissance sacristy door, and the 18th-century Baroque extensions after rebuilding following the Turkish devastation.

The smallest and the largest

Soon we reach a much smaller chapel hidden in the undergrowth: according to the information board in front of it, the St. Wendelin Chapel is the smallest chapel in the country. The small building certainly stood here in the 16th century, as it presumably replaced the “temple” for the few families that remained here after the Turks burned it down. Turning left to the street behind the chapel, we begin to conquer Világosvár Hill. From the asphalt road, a short but steep section climbs a deep road, at the end of which an information board explains in a breath how this type of roads form. The explanation is quite simple: the carts of grapevine farmers carve ruts, which are gradually deepened by rainwater flowing down from the hill, causing the whole road to sink compared to the original surface. Leaving the deep road, we continue uphill on a field road, with the next rest stop being the St. Donatus Chapel standing on the vineyard hill. The pretty little building has stood in the vineyard for more than a hundred years, initiated and supported by local vineyard owners. In the 1860s, the farmers began a collection first in must, then in cash, so that in 1915 the chapel could finally be consecrated. The outlook is excellent southwards, with two benches serving relaxation.

From the chapel, you can pedal up to the hilltop with a (bigger) momentum (you have to work for peace and happiness), where first we pass two souvenir shop buffets, then spot the snow-white stupa. This is the largest such structure in the country and, according to the information board, there is no larger one in all of Europe. But how did a Buddhist memorial get to the hills of the Keszthely Hills? After the regime change, a South Korean monk decided to build a Buddha shrine in the area representing peace, happiness, and enlightenment. He found the appropriate place in Zalaszántó, where the stupa built from South Korean, Austrian, and Hungarian donations was consecrated by the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso himself. Later, a meditation center was also built next to the stupa, where anyone can stop by for contemplation.

From the Buddha shrine, we return to Zalaszántó along the car access road, where it is worth stopping at the Kotsy watermill. In Zalaszántó, several watermills and a steam mill operated in the past; one survived – the Kotsy family’s, beautifully restored watermill. The mill wheel was powered by the water of the Kovácsi stream originating nearby. From the 1950s, it performed only grinding, which later ceased, and eventually, the whole mill operation stopped; it now operates as one of the exhibition sites of the Balaton Uplands National Park.

From Zalaszántó, we head towards Balaton via Hévíz, traveling a long stretch on a quiet, low-traffic, gently downhill road until we reach the junction near the Gyöngyösi Betyárcsárda. The inn, built in 1728, was traditionally a favorite hangout for bakony and zalai outlaws, so much so that two of them – Illés Vak and Pist Kőkes – were shot nearby by the pursuing police. The authenticity of this legend is unknown, but the memorial of the two outlaws is still visible beside the inn today.

Back to the water

From the inn, we continue on a slightly busier road towards Hévíz. (This section can be avoided by taking a slightly longer and higher alternative route via Rezi.) The Zala town is primarily known for Lake Hévíz – a unique formation attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. The water rising from a depth of 38.5 meters comes not from just one but several springs, with warm water springs supplemented by smaller cold water springs that together supply 30-40 thousand liters per minute, bubbling to the surface. In summer, the lake temperature is 33-35 °C, in winter 24-26 °C; the water is calcium and magnesium-rich, sulfurous medicinal water, beneficial for numerous complaints. The Romans likely visited the lake; later, locals certainly used it for bathing, but institutional bathing was developed at the end of the 18th century when György Festetics established the bathhouse. First the Festetics family, then Reischl Vencel, a brewery owner from Keszthely who leased the lake for 35 years at the beginning of the 20th century, continuously developed tourism built around the lake. The beautiful, well-kept surroundings owe much to the great predecessors, and it is no coincidence that Lake Hévíz remains a popular destination to this day – who wouldn’t want to swim among Indian water lilies even in pleasantly warm natural water in midwinter? (Perhaps only winter canoe trips on the Hévíz outflow offer an even greater experience.)

From Hévíz to Keszthely, we travel on perhaps one of the most beautiful bike paths in the country, which cuts straight through a wooded forest, providing pleasant shade in summer. Upon arriving in Keszthely, after a slight detour, we emerge at the Festetics Castle. From 1739, the Festetics family played a role in the life of the entire city (and its broader surroundings); the castle itself (its first building) was built between 1745 and 1750, later continuously expanded. The castle houses a noble lifestyle exhibition and the Helikon Library. The interior exhibition rooms, original or authentically reconstructed, show the 18th-19th-century noble lifestyle. The castle's most valuable asset is Hungary’s only fully preserved noble private library with more than 80,000 volumes, but the former economic buildings also host a carriage exhibition, a hunting exhibition, and a railway model exhibition. It is worth taking a walk in the castle's beautiful park – you can spend an entire morning or afternoon discovering Keszthely's best-known landmark.

From the castle, we roll along the pedestrian street towards the main square, where the town hall and parish church deserve special mention – the latter was built at the end of the 14th century by István Lackfi, the palatine, for the Franciscans settled here earlier with a monastery. The palatine himself was buried here in 1397 after being executed for conspiracy against the king. From here, it is only a few minutes’ ride to the lakeshore, which calls with its beach for a splash in summer, but it is also worth exploring the city outside the bathing season, as it is home to Helikon Park, the Stove House, or even a Cadillac Museum, not to mention the oddities of the pedestrian street such as the Nostalgia and Kitsch Museum, the Renaissance Erotic Panopticon, and the Horrarium and Torture Museum.