Circular walk to the calvary and Fokhagyma Hill

Itinerary:

• The route starts on the yellow Gyöngyök útja trail, which we follow all the way to the railway crossing.
• After crossing the railway tracks, we turn right onto the S trail. We follow this from the village through the calvary to the hilltop, then back through the Fokhagyma Hill to Városlőd.
• From the train station we again follow the yellow Gyöngyök útja trail back to the bus stop.

Details about the route: 

Climbing to the calvary

Starting from the village center, along Kossuth Street parallel to the tracks, we follow the yellow Gyöngyök útja trail up to the railway crossing. From there, turning right onto the S trail, we head south. Shortly after, we arrive at the calvary path disappearing into the wooded hillside, where we climb up beside the starting chapel. The calvary was erected in the 18th century on the site of the first wooden church of the Swabian settlers who moved in then, which has since been destroyed. The faithful built an impressive stone church from the ruins of the former monastery in place of the wooden church, dedicated to Saint Michael. The calvary was already noted at the end of the 18th century, but the stations were only built in the mid-19th century after a cholera epidemic that caused severe casualties. The small clearing among the stations, shaded by the canopy of the surrounding old forest, creates a particularly atmospheric sacred place.

Through the sheep to the hilltop

Behind the calvary chapel, we continue for a short stretch among old trees uphill, but soon reach the pasture above the village. The resettled population's main livelihood was the forest and agriculture, which on the steeper hillsides meant pasture-based livestock farming. The hillside above the village is opened by long meadows, with tree groups only standing around the paths. This offers a great opportunity to orient ourselves in the countryside; our view increasingly opens towards the Devecseri Valley, the main transport route crossing the Bakony. On the hilltop, behind us, the Old Bakony rises above the oak woods, and the wooded back of Kőris Hill crowned with a radio tower becomes visible.

Reaching the ridge, in summer we might meet the few remaining sheep herds still grazing the meadows above the village. Here, on the hilltop meadow embraced by forests, the S+ trail branches off towards Iglauer Park and Úrkút, but we continue on the S trail all the way to the end of the route.

At the edge of the planted pine and hornbeam-beech woods on the hilltop, we reach the flat clearing of Fokhagyma Hill, where the most striking panorama of our hike unfolds. Before us on the hilltop, a stone cross beckons in the middle of the meadow, where sitting on a bench we are captivated by the crucified Christ. The deeply religious Swabian settlers of Városlőd erected many crosses around the village over the past centuries, mainly as votive offerings.

However, from the hilltop it is better to concentrate on the surrounding landscape, as this is a scenic corner of the region. Behind us, the undulating ridges covered with forests rise all the way to the characteristic twin radio towers of Kab Hill, while in front of us the Devecseri Valley opening into the Little Hungarian Plain reveals itself more and more. The dome of Somló Hill dominates the view with its mesmerizing monolithic shape, rising commandingly from the Pápa–Devecser Plain, part of the Marcal basin, on the western horizon. These two defining hills, Somló and Kab, are related to the basalt volcanoes around Tapolca, with surroundings more or less eroded depending on their location.

On the hilltop there is also a sports airfield, where entry is understandably dangerous and forbidden. The western slope's meadow becomes increasingly park-like, requiring careful attention to find the continuing path. The cart road bends off the hill towards the upper tower of the nearby adventure park's rope course, but we need to continue northwards along the hillside. The groves close in more and more, and as we turn onto the steeper northern slope of the hill, we walk among increasingly old beech woods. From the thinning forest, we can spot the railway track nearing: the loading area of the Városlőd-Kislőd train station.

Industry brought by the train

The railway line, built in the second half of the 19th century connecting Szombathely and Budapest, greatly boosted the region’s economy thanks to international freight transport connections. Industry relying on the surrounding forests and mineral resources flourished powered by the railway. Városlőd's ceramic production, iron hammer, and sawmill could supply larger markets, so the population increasingly found livelihood in industry. As a result of this boom, the village population grew close to two thousand.

Following the winding Torna stream alongside the railway embankment, we return to the village through alder groves. Among the houses of the Pille district, we see a small stone furnace in the square, a replica of the glassworks’ melting furnace that used local wood. Városlőd’s industry clearly depended on the vast surrounding forests' timber, with essential ash fat boiling for glass production, as well as iron hammer and lime burning, and the ceramics industry defining the village’s industrialization. These factories were dismantled, liquidated, or relocated during the war and post-war economic reorganization. Thus, the originally Városlőd majolica was produced in Herend under communism, but no longer resembled the original artistic masterpiece.

The industrial Iglauer family established a park next to the former nearby factory area with conifers from around the world, and built a wooden house in the middle from prefabricated Swiss elements. It was nationalized during the communist era; as a pioneer camp, it served as a summer holiday camp for many children in a charming forest complex. After the regime change, the park was renewed with assistance from West Germany and named after the Iglauer family, serving hikers to this day, providing accommodation in wooden houses individually or even in the Swiss-style Iglauer villa.

After Iglauer Park, walking along Tourist Street shaded by foothill forests alongside the railway embankment, we return below the calvary and then follow the yellow Gyöngyök útja trail back to our starting point. Before heading home, it is worth taking a short walk in the village center to the Saint Michael Church, built on the site of the former monastery, most easily accessed through the railway crossing beneath the calvary.