Bakonyalja views and springs route

Itinerary

• From the bus stop, we head southeast on the Z trail.
• At the end of the field following the bridge over the stream, we turn right onto the Z+ trail.
• When we arrive at the S+ trail, we turn right onto it.
• Arriving in Magyarpolány, we turn left onto the S trail, then immediately leave it to the left to visit the Calvary.
• After the Calvary, we head east on the S trail.
• On Malom Street, keeping right, we follow the Z+ trail.
• At a large crossroads, we join the Z trail and continue straight.
• From the Ödön spring, we follow the S trail.
• Towards the north end of the long meadow, we continue on the SL trail, which goes off to the left.
• From the Szarvaskő castle ruins, we descend to the village on the ZL trail.
• On the main street, turning left, we reach the bus stop on the Z trail.

About the tour in detail

Döbrönte

The settlement probably existed already in the 11th century, belonging to the ancient Ugod castle estate of the Csák clan. The last male member of the Ugod branch sold the estate before 1320 to Pál Fehér of Töredemici, from whom the Himfy family, originating from the Szalók clan, acquired it in 1330. The settlement is first mentioned in a charter at that time as Devrente, derived from the Slavic personal name "Dobreta." Originally, the village was located north of the castle. One owner, Miklós Somogyi, began settling German cotters at the current location of the village in 1761, so by the end of the 18th century, Döbrönte had become a populated plain. The servants received land and meadow from the lord in exchange for labor. The population grew until 1941; at that time, out of 549 inhabitants, 64 were Hungarian and 485 were native German speakers.

Through the forests to the Holy Well

From the bus stop, we head southeast on the Z trail. Upon leaving the settlement, we cross the bridge and continue along the edge of the following field, then at its end, turn right onto the gravel road and the Z+ trail. The level path alternates patches of alder, deciduous, and spruce forests. After a wide road leading to the Little Forest section, we continue through oak-hornbeam forest. At the end of the straight section, the trail turns right, then after 50 m turns left, which we follow for a long time until the Sás meadow, where we arrive next to a deer stand. At the far end of the grassland, we turn right and re-enter the forest, accompanied on the left by pine forest and mixed oak on the right. At the three-way junction, we continue left. The path leads into the S+ trail, where we turn right. After half a kilometer, the trail continues to the left on a small path, and after 100 m, we can view the spring from under the huge beech tree of the Holy Well. The peaceful atmosphere makes it easy to linger.

The legend of the spring was left to posterity by Ferenc Ebele, former parish priest of Magyarpolány. "Once, on Pentecost Sunday, an evil spirit possessed a hunter at this place. Half-dead, he lay down when the Virgin appeared and freed him from the evil spirit. In memory of his blessed deliverance, the hunter placed a holy image on the beech tree standing there and gave up his hunting weapon forever." Over time, the area was neglected and overgrown. On February 11, 2001, a woman had a dream and did not rest until she was taken to the Holy Well. That same year, believers from Kolontár and Magyarpolány placed a statue of the Virgin Mary and a crucifix under the big beech tree and cleared and cleaned the area, which also serves as a pilgrimage site.

Saint Ladislaus' money

A little further from the spring along the path, we reach a yellowish-white rock formation. This is one of Hungary's richest formations in fossils, the Szőci Limestone Formation. The fossils found here prove that about 40-45 million years ago, this area was covered by a well-lit, nutrient-rich, warm, normally salty tropical sea. The many small flat, round "pebbles" protruding from the rock are known as Saint Ladislaus' money; these are fossils of extinct species belonging to the foraminifera genus Nummulites. Their name derives from the Latin word nummulus, meaning a small coin. There are several ideas about the origin of the Hungarian name. One suggests that Saint Ladislaus and his soldiers were chasing the Cumans, who scattered gold coins behind them hoping that the Hungarians would pick them up, allowing them to escape. At that moment, the saint prayed to God, and his prayer was answered. All the coins turned to stone, and the chase ended with their victory. Another version says that Saint Ladislaus was pursued by the Pechenegs, who scattered gold coins on the ground as he fled with his warriors, but the scattered coins soon turned to stone.

To Magyarpolány

Our trail continues as a small path. Eventually, we reach a wide gravel road where we turn left at the 11th station of the Way of the Cross leading to the Holy Well. The Way of the Cross represents Jesus' path carrying the cross to Golgotha. This is called the via crucis, or the path of the cross. The tradition of walking the Way of the Cross dates back to the time of the apostles, as tradition holds that many walked this path in the days following the Resurrection. The fourteen-station form became widespread in Bethlehem from 1518. Its unification was regulated by Pope Clement XII in a decree issued in 1731.

No fossils are found in the rock appearing here, as we are now walking on brilliantly white marl of the Polány Marl Formation, formed in a deep-sea basin twice as old. We continue on this until we reach the crucifix at the first station, then we arrive in Magyarpolány.

The first written mention of the settlement dates back to the 12th century when Folkomár, son of Péter, donated two oxgangs of land and four mansiones (including households) to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Maurice in Bakonybél. In the Middle Ages, three more settlements disappeared due to Turkish destruction within the boundaries of the then repeatedly depopulated current settlement: Endrét, Ethej, and Borsat. Polány belonged to the Cistercian Abbey of Zirc from 1696, which controlled the village's fate until 1945. In 1752, after the Turkish invasion and the Rákóczi War of Independence, Germans from Silesia and Upper Austria were settled here to convert the locally remaining Protestant population, creating a new village named Németpolány. To distinguish it from the old village now called Magyarpolány, a cart track separated the two settlements. The two merged as Magyarpolány in 1899.

The Calvary Hill

Entering the village, we continue straight, then turn left in front of the Baroque-style Saint Ladislaus Church, whose sanctuary was consecrated by Abbot Konstantin of Zirc in 1769 — the nave and the tower were only built in 1773. On the hill next to the church stands the Calvary, a group of five stations with nearly life-sized statues created by the Swabian Listner brothers in 1780. At the top of the hill stands the chapel built in 1910 in neo-Gothic style in honor of the Sorrows of the Virgin. Climbing the 173 steps leading here is definitely worthwhile, as the panorama from the chapel and its base is worth the effort. The main attraction is the Southern Bakony, with the antenna-studded peak of Kab Hill and the mass of Agár-tető, but we can also see the edge of the Tapolca Basin, where the mined peak of Haláp and the bald summit of nearby Cseket Hill rise. To the right in the background are the long ridge of the Keszthely Mountains and Rendeki Hill.

To the Ödön spring

After the Calvary, we head east on the S trail. Passing the cemetery and the memorials of World War I and II in front of it, we leave the village. Heading north, soon we turn right and continue between pasture sections. After fences, we turn right again and climb through mixed beech forest, then head north towards the intersection of the S, S+, and Z+ trails. We continue straight on the last one, which leads to the former Názer mill (Somháti mill). The name Malom Street refers to the fact that grain was brought here even from Magyarpolány. After the next road merging from the right, Saint Ladislaus' coins appear again, then at a right turn of the wide road, we turn left onto a grassy path crossing a pleasant beech forest patch through oak woods, which we follow until a gravel road. Turning left here, we reach the Z trail, which we follow straight to the gate of a game fence. Here, we turn left and then right at the fence corner towards the Ödön spring, originating at the foot of the Polány-Mánc Hill, which was once the border of the Zirc Abbey estate. It is named after Ödön Vajda, a Cistercian abbot. This very active monk, among others, restored the abbey church, had a second floor built on the eastern wing of the monastery, established schools, and supported the research of Remig Békefi, among others. Once, a hunting lodge stood here, visited even by István Fekete; its replica was built in 2020. The log house stands on a height next to the spring, with a fire pit, benches, and tables nearby. The building is intended for hikers and is currently (2023) available for daytime use from the Bakonyalja Friends Association.

On the neighboring Gannai-Mánc Hill was the settlement of Mánckeresztúr. In 1240, Donát, ispán of Bakony, handed over a land area donated by King Andrew II for the Holy Cross Chapel founded by the Benedictines of Bakonybél on Mánc Hill. A border mark from this time, whose folk name remains as a boundary marker, is still found not far from the hiking trail. It was considered an important marker because the property boundary turned from east to north at this point. After the depopulation of the hermitage, the area was attached to Ganna, also owned by the Benedictines of Bakonybél. Its latest renovation was in 1913 when Ganna was already separated from Magyarpolány.

Return to Döbrönte

From here, we follow the S trail again heading northeast, which after 600 m turns right off the wide road into a pine forest. We pass by a wooden cross erected by scouts camping here every summer. Soon, we cross the Köves Stream on a small wooden bridge, then through alder and young willow grassland. We reach a gravel road and continue left. After the white barrier bridge, we turn right, then towards the north end of the meadow follow the SL trail, going left. We climb beside the former site of a dismantled ski lift to the grassy ridge, from which we can see Somló and Ság Hill. Szarvaskő castle soon appears, built between 1367 and 1374 by Benedek, son of Pál Heym, a commander of King Louis the Great, also known as Himfy Benedek, a Bulgarian ban. Its first mention is as Zarwaskw castrum or Szarvaskő castle, named after the Himfy family coat of arms. During about the next hundred years, the impoverished family was attacked and robbed in 1464 by Czech mercenaries, when the then Pannonhalma Benedictine Abbey called Saint Martin Hill was raided, and as a consequence, King Matthias confiscated their estates, returning them only years later. The last male member of the family married his daughter Orsolya Imre in 1499 to Ferenc Essegvári, papal and Somló castellan. He built the outer castle and the thick-walled artillery bastion due to the civil wars following the Battle of Mohács. The fortress fell into ruin in the second half of the 17th century.

The tradition about Imre Himfy is recorded in the following story: During the reign of Matthias Hunyadi, from the window of the young handsome castle lord’s room, during a huge rainstorm, a man fighting for his life was seen grasping a stuck tree in the flooded Bitva Stream near the castle. Himfy immediately hitched up his carriage, and they hurried to rescue the distressed person with rope and boards. When they arrived, they saw an unconscious young girl and her large furry dog clinging to the trunk. Only after several attempts were they rescued. After three days of care in the castle, the beautiful girl named Flóra regained consciousness. The young couple immediately fell in love and got engaged. At that moment, her grandfather, Pál Urgond, entered the room; he was the gamekeeper of King Matthias in Királyvölgy, deep in Bakony. It turned out that the bride was the king’s goddaughter, as Urgond and his family met her escaping from the Turks in Transylvania. Matthias had pity on them and accepted the then infant as his goddaughter. The young couple then went to the king in Buda—because he was still the girl’s godfather—who happily welcomed the news, invited them for a meal, then gave his blessing to the marriage. Flóra and Imre married two weeks later.

From the castle ruins, we descend to the village on the ZL trail, where turning left on the main street, we reach the bus stop on the Z trail.