At the gateway to Görbeország: walk to Szanda castle

Itinerary:

• From Szandaváralja, we follow the K trail to the saddle below the castle.
• The KL trail leads up to the castle, then from there we descend on the ZL trail to the southeastern foot of the hill.
• We circle the castle hill from the south on the Z trail.
• We return to the saddle and then to Szandaváralja on the K trail.

Detailed description of the hike:

We start from the edge of Szandaváralja, which belongs to Szanda, from the bus turning point, following the K trail along Madách road towards the southeast, then turn right onto Dózsa György road, heading south towards the Castle Hill. At the end of the almost deserted settlement, below the gardens, we reach the meadow above the village where we walk on a gentle path marked with the Mária-forrás inscription, among freely standing fruit trees and through the pastures. At the uppermost Gyurinka meadow, the path turns left to the forest edge where among old trees we find the source of the Szandaváralja stream, the Gyurinka spring. This water source, named after a once frequent outlaw in the area, is now called Mária-forrás because a votive cross and an image of Mary that promised healing, once placed on the hill above us, were relocated here.

Before World War II, the Péter Hill above Szanda was a pilgrimage site where a miraculous well and a chapel once stood. On St. Peter and Paul’s day, young maidens dressed in white carried a statue of the Virgin Mary to the top of the hill, where they walked the Stations of the Cross; at that time, the sick cleansed themselves with water from the local miraculous well. Most of Péter Hill, along with the miraculous well, was mined after the war, but the cross on the summit was moved to the Mária-forrás. Since the late 2000s, locals revived the pilgrimage tradition, although now they only go halfway, to the renamed Gyurinka spring. As a tangible result of the pilgrimages, there are benches around the spring where visitors can rest in the shady valley head, and the spring itself is cleaned and continuously supplies water to quench their thirst.

Above the water source, we join a wide forestry road and climb in the shade of an old forest on the increasingly steep hillside. The previous gentle slopes consist of soft sediments—sandstones and claystones deposited in a former marine environment—while the Castle Hill itself is formed by an andesite block intruding into the sediment. Approaching the saddle, more volcanic blocks indicate this geological past.

From the saddle below the castle, we make a small loop around the narrow castle hill. First, following the KL trail, we climb the increasingly rocky path densely bordered by shrubs to the top of the Castle Hill. Upon emerging from the dense forest, we find on the right behind an old iron railing an interesting geological outcrop providing insight into the volcanic past. The cooling lava flow solidified here slowly, forming spectacular hexagonal cross-sectioned columns along the cooling planes. Unfortunately, the outcrop is quite neglected, but the geometrically precise edges of the hexagonal andesite columns can be clearly observed side by side on the rock surface.

At the top of the hill, the last remaining part of Szandavár appears, the 7-meter-high wall remnant of the old tower. We climb up the rocky side to the tower stump, finally standing on the andesite ridge breaking northward with vertical walls, where the castle once stood. The exact time of its origin is unknown; it was first mentioned in 1301. The castle and the associated villages had numerous owners until it fell into Turkish hands in 1546. Yearning to stop the looting from the "pagan nest," colonial warriors broke into the fortress—according to legend, through a secret tunnel—and cut down every Turkish defender. To prevent further occupation, they blew up the walls, leaving only decay growing among the ruins.

We have a splendid view over the surroundings: a rolling hilly and valley landscape dotted with fields, homesteads, and villages covered by forested ridges. The lookout is uninterrupted from the Buda Hills through the Pilis, Visegrád Hills, and Börzsöny massif up to the mountain ranges of the Felvidék. On exceptionally clear days, the Tatras are visible, while to the east the Karancs–Medves area and the Mátra mountains close the horizon.

From the castle, a serpentine path under the rocks on the southern side leads down along the extremely steep southeastern ridge on the ZL trail. The slope softens in a knobbly oak forest and soon reaches the meadow at the foot of the hill, where we sharply turn back on a gentle transversal forestry road, joining the Z trail. We walk through a forest boasting centuries-old oak groups. Nearby, over Cservölgypuszta, stands the majestic Jankó tree beneath which a former outlaw regularly hid until he was once hanged there.

At the junction of the bulldozer road, the K trail joins, which we also follow back up to the saddle below the castle, finally returning on the already traveled path, through the meadow above the spring and village back to the village.