Beautiful view: Salabasina, the Rém gorge

Itinerary

• At the 860 bus Pilisszentkereszt, Közép major stop, walk on the forest path branching right from the road to the ditch!
• Go up the ditch to the left, over the dam, all the way to the top of the gorge!
• From there, turn right and return along the upper path, which leads back to the ditch above the dam!
• From here, return to the starting point along the same route you came.

Detailed description of the route

The forest path starts not far from the Közép major bus stop, going right past the goat farm fence towards the Salabasina ditch. If you get off at the previous stop, about 200 meters away, Pilisszentkereszt, Gyógyáruértékesítő, you can buy fresh goat cheese at the goat farm shop.

The goat farm is located on the former Podmaniczky-major estate. After World War II, the estate was nationalized, renamed Liszenkómajor, and poultry breeding experiments were conducted there. (Trofim Genrikhovich Lysenko was a Soviet biologist and agronomist, essentially a dilettante pseudoscientist, who believed that plants could also be trained for communism.) After the failed experiments, a chemical and pharmaceutical warehouse was built on the closed estate, which is the origin of the bus stop's name. After the warehouse was sold, a goat farm was established here, which is still in operation.

The forest path passes by the ruins of a monastery located within the goat farm fence. According to researchers, the ruins are the remains of the mysterious hermitage called Insula Pilup, first mentioned in 1263 as the "birth certificate" of the Hungarian Pauline order. At the end of the path, we descend into the ditch.

A long struggle follows through the ditch, blocked in many places by fallen trees lying crosswise, all the way to the stone dam. It is possible to climb over the dam as well, but crossing through the dam's tunnel is more exciting. After the dam, we continue upwards in the gorge, often helping ourselves with hands and feet.

The first part of the name Salabasina (Sala) preserves the memory of charcoal boiling, similar to the Szalajka Valley in the Bükk Mountains. In the 18th-19th centuries, in these then extensive beech forests, charcoal was boiled to supply glassworks. The name Salabasina appeared on maps during the first military survey (in the 1780s). At that time, the use of double letters in printing was not yet widespread. Consequently, the letter "S" could represent s, sz, or zs sounds. The surroundings determined the pronunciation. On later maps, the name was either transcribed or not (Szalajka was eventually transcribed, Salabasina not). The suffix bas means head in the Ottoman language. In Bulgaria, the Balkans, or Georgia in the Caucasus, the mountain Karabas means Blackhead. Salabasina means that charcoal was once boiled at the head or upper end of the valley. (Based on Géza Szádeczky-Kardoss)

At the end of the gorge, we reach the forest where we turn right and start back at the top of the gorge. The path leads back almost to the dam, from where we return to the starting point by the already familiar route.