Between coal and stone quarries on Naszály

Itinerary

• We start from the bus stop heading northeast following the S sign, continuing until the fork before Nagybánya Rock.
• At the fork, we turn right, following the K▲ sign towards the Naszály summit.
• From the summit, we descend on the K sign to the next sign-posted intersection.
• From the intersection, we make a detour on the K▲ sign to Látó Hill.
• From Látó Hill, we descend back to the junction of the K▲ and S signs; continuing left on the latter to the K+ fork.
• At the junction of the S and K+ signs, we follow the latter to the K◼ sign.
• From the fork, we continue on the K◼ sign to the S◼ sign approaching from the opposite direction.
• From the meeting point of the K◼ and S◼ signs, we return to the bus stop on the S◼ sign.

About the hike in detail

The Naszály

The Naszály is the highest and widely known mountain on the left bank of the Danube Bend. Geographically it belongs to the Cserhát mountain range, being its westernmost and highest member. Its main peak is 652 meters, but two smaller peaks (Szarvas and Látó Hill) also rise well above 500 meters.

The geological composition of the mountain is very varied. Its main mass consists of about 210-million-year-old Dachstein limestone. At the time of its formation, Hungary's territory, along with the Alps, was a northern bay of Africa in the Tethys Ocean. The warm, shallow marine environment greatly favored the proliferation of various calcareous algae. After their demise, their calcareous skeletons, having sunk to the seabed, transformed into the limestone rock. Similarly, the surface-exposed main dolomite on the mountain formed, but with a large amount of magnesium incorporated into the rock material. The Dachstein limestone has been quarried since the 17th century. Among others, the stone bricks used to build the pillars of the Chain Bridge come from here. Around the ridge and on the southeast side of the mountain, there is linden hill sandstone on the surface, with main dolomite between the two blocks, and patches of Szépvölgy limestone and Kiscell clay also surface. Next to the Sejce limestone quarry operates a smaller 45-hectare clay mine, uncovering the Kiscell Clay Formation. The clay, formed inside a marine basin here in the early Oligocene, has been used as a brick-making raw material since Roman times. Contemporaneous with its formation, linden hill sandstone was deposited in the coastal belt, which, due to its siliceous binding material formed by later hydrothermal effects, is a hard and resistant rock. The strongly karstified Dachstein limestone contains many caves formed by water. Among the most famous are the Naszály Swallow Hole Cave (also called Színlő Cave), the Nincskegyelem shaft cave, and the Násznép cave. The first two are strictly protected; the last one is specially protected.

The vegetation of Naszály is very rich and varied. The number of vascular plant species exceeds 450, of which about 80 are protected and 5 are strictly protected. Among the latter, two are Pannonian endemic species: the Hungarian Seseli (Seseli leucospermum) and the extremely rare pale yellow rocket (Erysimum wittmannii). To date, 21 plant communities have been described from the mountain.

Kosd

The settlement lies at the southeastern foot of Naszály. Several theories exist about the origin of its name. One links it to the family name Custin, another sees it as a diminutive of the word for ram. The village has been inhabited since prehistoric times — in addition to artifacts confirming this, Celtic, Roman, Sarmatian, and archaeological finds from the 8th-10th centuries and the Árpád era have been discovered in the area.

King Andrew II granted the village in 1199 to his confidant, Bishop Bolesław of Vác. The inhabitants' peace was disturbed by the Tatars in 1241, the Hussite attacks in the 1450s, and the Turks in 1526. During the 1848-1849 War of Independence, János Damjanich clashed with the Austrians and Artúr Görgey with the Russian forces here. During the Turkish occupation, the majority of the inhabitants converted to Protestantism; they used the local church, which was returned to the Catholics in 1719.

From Kosd to the forest

Next to the bus stop stands the Árpád House Saint Elizabeth Church. Bishop Bolesław was a confidant of Andrew II and godfather to his son, the later King Béla IV. It is no surprise that the church he founded chose the king’s canonized daughter as its patron saint. Construction took place under Bishop Bereck between 1221 and 1235. The original 18-meter-long church was destroyed during the Tatar invasion and rebuilt about 30 years later. This second Saint Elizabeth church stood a few meters east of the original. In the 15th century, a Gothic building replaced the previous one. At the end of the 18th century, Kristóf Migazzi, Bishop of Vác, renovated the church in the Baroque style; its current facade is early 19th-century classicist style.

From the bus stop, we head northeast on the S sign, which turns left at the first intersection onto Dózsa György Street. After the “Kosd, forester’s house” bus stop, we turn left onto Bányai Street, leading out of the settlement. Shortly after the last houses of the village, there is a rest area on the right. Then comes the small settlement Bánya, followed by the forestry barrier on the wide gravel road to the edge of the forest.

Between coal and stone quarries to the Naszály summit

In the Bánya Valley, we soon reach the Miners’ Memorial surrounded by carved wooden poles, commemorating seven miners, with the barred entrance of the former Anna Shaft mine beneath it. The Kosd Formation, of middle to upper Eocene age, is deposited on the Dachstein limestone and contains the previously mined coal deposits. During its formation, slow marine transgression created coastal freshwater, slightly brackish, then saline coal swamps, whose buried plant material formed the coal seams around Kosd.

The Kosd coal mine

The coal mine’s history began in 1899, when coal was found 132 m deep in the episcopal estate at Kosd. Extraction started in 1904 with French-Belgian capital under Váci Coal Mine Rt. Production was initially profitable but was disrupted by severe water inflows in 1907; on May 7, karst water flooded the mine’s best coal seam. The mine was closed in 1927 by the mining authority. Production restarted in 1928 after renovations but was permanently closed in 1931 following another water inflow incident that caused six fatalities.

From the nicely paved, gently ascending road, after 700 m, the S signs turn left. The small path through the sessile oak forest reaches a dirt road where the sign turns right.

The Pádimentom Stone quarry

At the foot of the Kopasz Hills, we reach a whitish-yellow rock face with bench layering above the trees. Let’s unravel how the Pádimentom Stone arrived here! In the marine transgression process known from Anna Shaft, the swamp and marsh deposits containing coal seams were gradually submerged under the sea. On the lagoon’s reef edge, the shallow marine Szépvölgy limestone was deposited here, popularly called “Naszály marble”. Between the limestone layers are 0.5–5 cm thick marly interlayers indicating variable sedimentation. During these periods, the quantity of land-derived sediments entering the sea increased. A typical fossil is Nummulites spp., known as Saint Ladislaus’s coin. The quarry’s name comes from the thinly bedded limestone’s major use as paving stone for roads and walkways. However, the stone becomes slippery when wet, which is its disadvantage. The extracted stone was used from Kismaros to Penc and also for road stones in the Bánya Valley. The word pádimentum/pádimentom derives from Latin pavimentum, meaning “rammed floor,” “earth floor,” or “flooring.”

Before the Pádimentom Stone, the sign turns left. The first bend offers a nice view, then the road deepens. The slope looks strikingly rusty-colored due to the rock’s high iron content. Soon we reach a signposted four-way junction; here we turn right on the K▲ sign to continue towards the Naszály summit.

Nagy-Bánya Rock

We soon reach the second quarry, Nagy-Bánya Rock. The K▲ sign runs along its panoramic edge. Quarrying began in the 1680s. The linden hill sandstone extracted here formed around 30 million years ago when the area was a sinking coastal or shallow marine plain. It consists mainly of sand and small quartz pebbles, cemented largely by silica brought by thermal waters from the earth’s depths. The quarry’s significance is shown by the fact that a building complex was marked here on the 2nd Military Survey maps (1819–1869). The rock was used mainly as building and decorative stone; some late Baroque buildings in Vác are built from it. There are claims the stone cubes for the Chain Bridge’s pillars come from Naszály, while others dispute this. Below is a letter from the 1880s by Károly Pajerl, a Vác stonemason, found by Zsolt Pataki in the Vác Archives during research related to the Nagy-Bánya Rock quarry.

“(...) from 1840 the English company building the Pest Chain Bridge took over the quarry and exploited the best quality stone extensively; in 1846 a Vác stonemason again became quarry tenant with a 300 forint annual rent but had to give up the lease due to the stagnation during the revolution; (...)”

Since the bridge’s riverbed pillars were built between 1840 and 1846 and “Vác stone” was used for the pillars, the claim is very likely true.

The Naszály summit and Látó Hill

After Nagy-Bánya Rock, approaching the summit, we enter a beech forest, then arrive at the summit under the geodetic tower. The tower is now in critical condition; signs prohibit climbing, even though the top would offer a full panorama of the Danube Bend, the Börzsöny and Cserhát mountains. In the 1970s and '80s, 111 reinforced concrete measurement towers were built in Hungary for surveying, but with satellite technology spreading, most have become functionally obsolete. Most are in poor condition. Several were stripped by metal collectors; others serve as transmitter towers or observation points, and a few are used as viewpoints.

From the tower, we continue westward on the K sign to the next signposted intersection, where we turn left on the K▲ sign and make a short detour to Látó Hill. From this natural viewpoint, the Danube Bend, Börzsöny, Pilis, and Visegrád mountains appear before us.

In the dolomite rock grassland underfoot live rare, protected, and strictly protected warmth-loving species such as the small iris, pasque flower, Silvery spleenwort, and field bindweed. The endemic Hungarian Seseli lives only in the open, calcareous bedrock rock grasslands of the Transdanubian Mountains and Naszály. Its origin dates to warmer interglacial periods between Ice Ages. You can find its dill-like, bright green basal rosettes year-round; it blooms white umbrella-shaped flowers in the second half of summer.

Below us is the clay quarry, and to the west the limestone quarry is visible. The vast 105-hectare Sejce quarry opened in 1963. Its founding document was signed by János Kádár himself. Until the regime change, it operated without environmental filters, placing Vác in the so-called Dirty Dozen — the 12 most polluted Hungarian settlements. Since then, extraction continues with improved technology and according to laws; limestone is quarried by drilling and blasting. The aggregate is carried 3 kilometers on a conveyor belt to the Vác Duna-Dráva Cement Ltd. plant. The quarry yard is also a mineral deposit.

The Szentimrevárosi Association erects a cross each year on Hungary’s mountains in memory of Hungarian saints. The 4-meter redwood cross here was also placed by them in honor of Saint Margaret of the Árpád House in 2001.

Through the Gombási resting place to Kosd

We return to the junction of the K▲ and S signs, and take the latter left, heading southwest. Soon we enter a beautiful grassy sessile oak forest with the one-flowered pearl grass dominant on the herb layer, indicating the dry nature of the site. Here and there on the road lie small and large quartz conglomerate pebbles — fragments of the coarse-grained linden-hill sandstone. Approaching the plateau’s edge, the road steepens and proceeds in a limestone-loving oak forest. Beware of slipping! Below the steep parts, the sign turns left from the small road onto a narrower path. Be careful not to miss it!

Soon we enter a planted black pine forest. The black pine’s biodiversity-reducing effect is very evident: instead of the previously rich undergrowth, the forest herb layer now consists of only a few species. Another intersection follows, where thermal waters have dissolved crumbly dolomite at the surface, long used as scouring powder — it was even hawked in Vác. The main raw material of scratch-free scouring agents is still dolomite flour.

The sign winds further under the forest. Soon an old mowed orchard appears, worth a glance. On the species-rich mesophilic meadow below, two large sandstone blocks stand out, the graves of two members of the Nemes family. For a while, the path continues in the forest, then crosses a beautiful panoramic meadow to the Gombási resting place, where it’s worth stopping briefly. Although the water from the well is not drinkable, the view of the Látó Hill surroundings is beautiful.

After the rest, we continue east on the K+ sign. First, we leave the houses along a road bordered by lilac bushes and dogwoods, then flowered ash trees give shade overhead; this leads us to the Mágnes meadow with a beautiful Danube Bend view. Rumor has it the background radiation here is somewhat stronger than average, similar to the infamous Attila Hill in Tápiószentmárton. Continuing in the forest, on the left we find the “Rain shelter at the southern side of Naszály” named wooden house.

Soon we reach the junction of the K+ and K◼ signs. We go straight on the latter, which about 100 m later turns right off the wide road. Watch out, as it’s easy to continue straight! The descending path leads onto a wide dirt road where we turn left, then soon re-enter the forest and walk parallel to it. After a while, we return again to the wide road, turn left, and walk through the fields towards Kosd.

At one point, the K◼ turns right, where the Bozótvölgy cabin is accessible. The atmospheric and well-equipped yet secluded cabin is worth spending a night in. We proceed straight back to Kosd on the S◼ sign, to the bus stop.