Excursion in the center of Eastern Mecsek

Itinerary:

• We follow the K◼ mark along the street of Püspökszentlászló to the entrance of the bishop's castle.
• Opposite the castle entrance, we turn left onto the trail sign of the Path of Spouses.
• Joining the S mark, we cross the Miske Hill and climb up to the Cigány Hill to the lookout tower.
• We continue following the S mark to a fork where we turn left onto the K+ mark.
• From the asphalt road, we follow the K mark (to the right) into the Hidasi Valley.
• At a meadow, we turn left onto the Z+ mark, which leads to Pusztabánya.
• From Pusztabánya on the other side, we descend along the K▲ mark through the Kis-Tóti Valley back to Püspökszentlászló, to the parking lot.

Detailed description of the hike:

Arboretum hiding a castle

From the lower end of Püspökszentlászló, starting at the parking lot, we set off among tidy homesteads and well-kept farmhouses following the K◼ mark to the bishop's castle. Here stood the chapel which, according to tradition, was built by Saint László himself in gratitude because local hermits found shelter in its cave from a storm that broke out during a bison hunt. This chapel, ruined during Turkish times, was rebuilt with a shingle dome and expanded to a castle intended as a summer residence, financed by Pál László Esterházy, bishop of Pécs. Originally, as a Pauline monk, he belonged to an order devoted to solitude and contemplation, disbanded by Emperor Joseph II's decree. The legend lived on here, under the protection of the Zengő; a century later, Sámuel Hetyey renovated the buildings and created an arboretum and a bishop's garden with evergreens around the castle. After the World War, it operated as a home of charity, with nuns retreating to the hidden valley; their unmarked simple graves can be found above the castle park.

From the entrance of the bishop's garden, we head left down a steep slope along the trail marked as the path of spouses (styled as two intertwined wedding rings under a stylized roof). The stations along this promenade feature thought-provoking quotes and themes reflecting on the past every few hundred meters. The original idea comes from Germany, wishing: “It would be nice if around churches and chapels there was not only the Way of the Cross but also a path dedicated to the cradle of life, marriage.” We pass the Saint Francis chapel built on the top of a steep hillside, standing in the shade of old candelabras on the edge of the plateau of the peak region. However, we only cover half of this thematic path and leave the nature trail at the summit.

At the saddle between Kecske-gyűr and Hárs Hill, we join the S mark and proceed almost flat along the ridge of the forested hills. The karstic region is home to the Banat lily, with the majority of its known population living on these slopes around the Zengő. If arriving in good weather at the end of spring, we may see its bright cyclamen-pink flowers in the brushy forest. This critically endangered species has a symbolic value of a quarter million forints—but only as a penalty if picked—though it was used as a medicinal plant in the past.

From panorama to panorama

Descending from Hárs Hill, the landscape opens up as we pass through charming hay meadows on the wide ridge of Miske Hill. We get views of the Óbánya Valley, the houses of Kisújbánya, and open panoramas to the west, including our later hiking target: the wooded areas of Hidasi Valley. Above the central forests, the western ridges of the Mecsek emerge, crowned by Misina Hill and the Tubes massif. The meadows of Kisújbánya, established in the mid-18th century, were reclaimed from the forest by German settlers from Bohemia to produce fodder for their animals. The idyllic grassy ridge exudes a genuine mountainous atmosphere. Though the peaks around 400 meters do not meet the official mountain height criteria, the cutting wooded valleys and ridges recall the ranges of the Carpathians.

Opposite us rises Dobogó, the highest point in Tolna County; we reach its adjacent peak, the wooded block of Cigány Hill, via a short but steep climb after crossing the asphalt road. The S mark trail leads along the limestone ridge to the lookout tower built in the 2000s, the highest point of our hike. From the tower, there is a magnificent panorama of the surrounding mountains; the horizon is even broader than from Miske Hill. Among the foliage, we can see the summit of Zengő and beyond it the western corner of the Villány Hills over the Mecsek mountains, visible through the window opened by the Szentlászlói Valley.

Meandering

We cross the peak along the S mark, then again turn left to the K+ mark. This joins the asphalt road coming from Kisújbánya, from which we soon turn off following the K sign of the Southern Transdanubian Blue Trail into the forming Hidasi Valley. The meadows of Miske Hill and the breezy Cigány Hill lie above the valley carved into the rock layers of the central region, where dense boxwood and beech forests stretch toward the light. The hiking trail joins an asphalt road leading to Pusztabánya and Zobákpuszta at the edge of a clearing. Although we head to Pusztabánya, there is a more scenic route to it if we continue following the K mark along the valley rather than the road.

As soon as we leave the road, we enter a strictly protected area, following a playfully winding stream in dense, old forest. The meandering streambed forms where one bank can continuously build up while the other erodes. The bends cut into the slopes more deeply until opposing banks nearly touch. Here, the stream's flow erodes the area at the curves' edges with large undercuts and steep banks, eliminating the beech forest, while the building bank spreads a gentle gravel beach.

In the footsteps of glassworks

We cover only a few hundred meters on this scenic stretch before turning toward Pusztabánya along the Z+ sign, at the edge of a forest clearing leading to the Betyár Spring. After a few hundred meters of forest climb, we reach the lodge in the old beech grove, the only surviving building of the former glassworks settlement. When the local forests were depleted, the glassworks moved here from Réka Valley, Óbánya, then Kisújbánya at the end of the 18th century. The uncovered remains of the glassworks and the rebuilt exhibition site can be found on the other side of the asphalt road and the meadow, where the K▲ mark leads.

In the last section of our journey, we descend back to Püspökszentlászló along the K▲ mark through Kis-Tóti Valley, where the karst water breaks out in spectacular rocky basins in places. The waterworks utilize it through diverted wells and source enclosures. From beneath the basalt cover of central Eastern Mecsek, Jurassic sedimentary rock surfaces here again, with karst water rising along its cracks. The valley's cutting is a trough broken by tectonic forces along a fault, into which the stream has cut its way. We arrive from the gorge forest to the meadows next to Püspökszentlászló, and with a view toward Zengő and the side of Hármas Hill, we climb back to the village.