Across the wine-producing mountain

Itinerary:

• From Tarcal train station, follow the P marking to the asphalt road leading to the quarry pond.
• Upon reaching the rock walls, turn left onto the (unmarked) asphalt road, then follow the path to take a detour to the quarry pond.
• Return to the asphalt and follow it to the right.
• After passing the quarry walls, turn right onto a promenade and walk to the Blessing Christ statue.
• From the statue pond, descend the stairs, then follow the promenade to the right back to Tarcal.
• Turn right onto Könyves Kálmán Street.
• At the second opportunity, turn right onto the P◼ marking and follow it through the vineyards.
• Where the marked road would cut into a deep road, switch left to the unmarked vineyard road and use it to return (upwards) to the marked trail.
• Follow the P◼ marking to the junction of a vineyard road.
• Turn right onto the P+ marking, which leads to the asphalt road ascending to the summit.
• Switch to the connecting P marking, which we follow first on asphalt, then along a path crossing the ski slope.
• At a fork, turn right onto the P▲ marking to walk up to the mountain summit.
• Descend back to the fork along the P▲ marking.
• Continue straight following the P marking, which leads through Tokaj to the Tokaj train station.

Detailed tour description:

At the foot of the mountain

We start from the train station toward the mountain rising above the rooftops, and the P marking guides us to Könyves Kálmán Street. We bypass the cemetery at the edge of the settlement and reach a dirt road from which, turning left, we walk through a rock gate formed by broken walls to the lake shore.

The quarry pond opens up, revealing the lake’s turquoise mirror – stay on the established promenade because the walls are sometimes at risk of collapse, and stones occasionally fall to the courtyard. Although swimming in the water is forbidden, the view is worth the detour, and we can also closely examine the rocks forming the mountain. The Tokaj Mountain is mostly built from a volcanic rock called dacite, similar to andesite (named after Transylvania where it was first described), and was an independent eruption center. The quarry digs deep into a lava flow material, and you don’t need to be a geologist to notice a thin yellowish layer deposits on the dark, dense rock. This latter fine-grained rock is loess, which forms excellent soil for viticulture and is much younger than dacite: while the volcano was active 12-11 million years ago, this sandy material arrived about 10,000 years ago during the end of the Pleistocene ice ages, carried by the winds. An interesting fact about the quarry pond is that – like many others – the high walls protect it from the wind, so water mixing is minimal; only the surface layer warms up. After thoroughly exploring the abandoned quarry yard, turn around and return to the transport road. This time, between the rock walls, turn right onto the ascending road section.

After a sharp right turn, we exit the rock corridor and turn right again, this time onto a well-followed promenade. At the hilltop appears the huge Blessing Christ statue, our next destination. Opposite, the water of the lake sparkles at the bottom of the quarry. The removed stone was used as building material (significantly transported on the Tisza River) towards the Great Plain or ended up in vineyard retaining walls. From the benches, we descend the stairs beside the Christ statue, from which we can see Tarcal and also the meeting of the Great Plain and the North Hungarian Mountains because behind the Szerencs Hills not only the Tokaj Mountains but even farther away the Bükk edge can be seen. In the opposite direction, the summit with the TV tower is visible, which from here doesn’t seem so high. But the defining element of the view remains the statue: the monumental creation is 8.5 meters tall, weighs about 50 tons, and has dominated the hill since 2015. A stone processing entrepreneur frequently visited the Tarcal Saint Teresa Chapel and once came across an image depicting Blessing Jesus – this inspired him to build the country’s largest Jesus statue. A park has been created around the sculpture making the uphill walk a pleasant experience.

Opposite the statue, we descend the stairs, turn right, and descend back to Tarcal through the panoramic park. At the Roman Catholic church on Könyves Kálmán Street, it is worth looking down on the settlement from the building’s other side. Additionally, in the church tower's pillars, we can discover original Gothic style features; however, there is no longer any indication that the building once had two towers.

Direction summit!

We head right on the street from which at the second opportunity we turn right, now following the P◼ marking. We enter a narrow but very scenic loess corridor (unfortunately littered), and we can closely examine this sandy, fine rock – the narrow dark band under the trees is already the forest soil. Gradually climbing and stepping out of the deep road, we reach the heart of the wine region among the vineyard rows. The long, humid, and sunny autumn typical for Tokaj-Hegyalja with sufficiently dry weather causes grape berries to crack, letting in the noble rot mold. This initiates the aszú process – the berry begins to dry in the sun (hence the name), increasing its acidity and sugar content. The proximity of the wet floodplain of the Tisza and Bodrog, the rainy climate of the neighboring mountains, and the warm, sunny autumn weather of the Great Plain together create a special microclimate favorable for this process. Due to early autumn precipitation, followed by a longer, relatively dry and sunny period, and the aszú process’s time requirements, the harvest usually occurs quite late, between October and December. Suitable berries are individually picked from the bunches, so producing aszú wine is quite labor-intensive, which also influences its price. At first, local wines did not stand out nationally, but after the Tatar invasion destroyed vines and King Béla IV brought Italian and Walloon settlers to the area (reflected in names such as Olaszliszka or Bodrogolaszi), a new chapter in Tokaj viticulture began. The heyday after the long stem pruning is dated to the 18th-19th centuries, ended by the phylloxera devastation.

If visiting vineyard roads in autumn, don’t be alarmed by continuous banging sounds: no shooting is happening; these are the sounds of bird-scaring cannons protecting the grapes. Because of this, autumn is not the most optimal season to stay here. On warm days, not only the grapes but the hikers are sun-dried here, and due to southern exposure, there is no shelter, so carrying enough water and headgear is advisable. The next section is easier to navigate with the Természetjáró app because the hiking trail leads into an old overgrown deep road taken over by acacia, so it must be bypassed. The vineyard road forks; choose the left branch, forming a small loop and approaching the ditch-hidden acacia grove. We return to the marked trail from meadows and vineyard rows, which we continue upwards. Soon, the panorama opens, and our gaze is drawn toward the back of the Tokaj Mountains, where the TV tower also appears. In the opposite direction, the edge of the Bükk undulates on the horizon. Passing abandoned, overgrown parcels, we turn onto a vineyard road, following the P+ marking to the right. Shortly, we reach the asphalt service road winding to the summit and, at its next turn, step left onto a path. A few meters ahead, a ski slope line splits the forest in two: the 600-meter-long, straight track is still used in winter, snowy times. From here, we get a narrow view over the Bodrogzug floodplain forests, and looking up, the TV tower again hits the sky – now really just an arm’s length away. The P mark crosses the grassland and continues in the forest. Alongside the non-native acacia, species preferring cooler conditions, such as beech, also appear, and the forest character becomes much more mountainous. Soon, we arrive at a junction where we must take the right-turning P▲ marking. The most beautiful, atmospheric section of the forest part of the tour follows, but we are already on the home stretch: the narrow path turns back to the asphalt road, and we reach the parking lot in front of the TV tower fence.

From the commander’s perspective

From a small clearing edge, we can gaze into the endless Great Plain: the flat view is enriched by a few oxbow lakes, former river bends (in this case the Tisza River). The mountain connects with steep slopes to the lowland, so the height experience is given, but the summit can be disappointing for those who come up just for the view. Due to the building complex, we can only move in a narrow area, and it is also built-up. Instead of a panoramic view, we get a slim sector. Looking down, the island mountain character is well perceptible, and striking how accurately Petőfi painted this high point when he compared it to a commander before an army. True, from here we experience it only from the commander's viewpoint, whose “regiment,” the Tokaj Mountains, hides in the opposite direction.

Nowadays mostly called Tokaj Mountain, this bastion was formerly known as Nagy-Kopasz, possibly referring to the result of former logging, but today nothing remains of it. Not only the forest's resurgence but also the television tower built in 1960 occupy the summit basically. But this is not the only uncertain name in the area: what we know as Zemplén Mountains was called Tokaj Mountains before 1945 (named after its southernmost part), and the part rising beyond the border (with the Szalánc Mountains) together formed the Eperjes-Tokaj mountain range.

Down the mountain slope

We descend from the summit following the P▲ marking and after reaching the P marking, head west towards Tokaj. The path through mixed forest is rocky and gravelly in many places; sometimes the volcanic rock composing the mountain appears, so move carefully. The forest consists of patches dominated by acacia mixed with pine typical for the mountain. Due to its tannin content and resistance, acacia was favored in the vineyards and often used as vine stakes or poles because, buried in the ground, it resists fungal infections and rot much longer.

Occasionally, the dense forest opens, and between the trees, we can see the Tisza floodplain. Before a flattening terrace, a clearing to the left opens views to the Bodrogköz and the historic town of Tokaj nestled at the mountain base. From here, the settlement's strategic role becomes clear: it is surrounded by marshland enveloping the volcanic cone, whose prominence protects Tokaj from weather hardships and floods while providing a view and fertile loess soil. The road loses elevation and then cuts deeply into a loess sediment slope resting area.

The path targets downtown Tokaj; its direct route compromises comfort, so on the steepest descending stretch, we serpentine among bushes toward the city edge and the cemetery. The elongated ridge supporting the mountain's side, the shadiest side, was used for burials since grapes would grow poorly there. Opposite the cemetery, where old vineyards once lay, scrubs and some renovated plantations now replace them, and the settlement's houses and cellars begin. We soon reach the main square with the Catholic church and the Rákóczi cellar, where Szapolyai was crowned king. The center is adorned with the glorious relics of past times: ornamental buildings and numerous denominational churches. Among others, the synagogue of the Jewish wine merchant community and an Orthodox church built for officials handling shipments to tsarist Russia color the palette.

In the last section of our route, we leave the old town heading south through a cozy pedestrian street and arrive at Queen Elizabeth’s Tisza Bridge. It is worth taking a short detour to walk across and observe the confluence of the Bodrog and Tisza Rivers: below, the waters of the Northeast Carpathians and northern Transylvania merge. The “blond” Tisza is often darker and murkier than the Bodrog because the latter carries waters from the eastern part of Upper Hungary and the lower mountain areas of Transcarpathia, while the Tisza unites the precipitation of a much larger area, reflecting a broader meteorological zone in its water regime. The city owes its strategic importance to this bridge and the naturally formed narrowing of the river. Throughout history, this has always been a crossing point, and a castle stood on the opposite landstrip surrounded by water in the High Middle Ages. The water mass flowing below is now regulated by the dam of the Tiszalök hydroelectric power plant built during the Communist era, which raised water levels by several meters and caused sedimentation of the stagnant waterbed.

Returning to the city’s main road heading south toward Kistokaj, we follow the P mark along the shaded tree row beside the road. It leads under the rails to the train station. The buildings of the opposite Szerelmi winery hill and the rows of vines climbing the steep slopes bid farewell to the historical wine capital before returning by train to the far side of Tokaj Mountain, to Tarcal.