Following the old Eger cart road

Itinerary

• During the route, follow the K mark almost all the way through.
• To reach the Szarvaskő castle, take the K/ mark turning right, then walk back on it.
• The K mark leads down to Szarvaskő center.

Detailed description of the route

The vanished Barkók, the expelled monks, and the defunct industry

We start towards Eger along the main street of Bélapátfalva, then after a small park, turn left following the K mark. Behind the houses, the huge, rugged bastion of Bél-kő emerges. The slightly ascending street forks before the cemetery. Turning right, towards the abbey parking lot, we find the downward sloping promenade leading to the church. Looking back, Bélapátfalva nestles at the foot of hilly terrain; it was once inhabited by the Barkók (similar to about 50 other villages). This small ethnic group lived at the border of Borsod, Gömör, and Nógrád, differing only slightly in customs and dialect from the more widespread neighboring Palóc people. None of their origins have been fully clarified. The town's history is closely connected over a century with the mining of Bél-kő, where limestone blocks sometimes 100 meters high were removed, while at the foot cement and lime plants produced construction materials.

Alongside the paved, illuminated promenade runs a small brook; behind the trees, the mining-scarred cliff face becomes increasingly impressive. After a short climb, another giant structure intrudes into view: at the top of the steps, we face the massive gate of the Cistercian monastery at Bélhármkút. As with the settlement, the prefix Bél in the name refers to the former owner of the area, the Bél (“Bel”) clan, and the three wells count the nearby springs.

The abbey, founded in the 13th century, was begun by Cistercian monks from Pilis until the Mongol invasion thwarted their efforts. Gothic influences later joined the Romanesque style. The monks could move into the completed buildings before the middle of the century, but a few decades later their monastery was burned down by the troops of King Ladislaus IV. The abbey, managed by the Archdiocese of Eger, began to decline in the 15th century, with the last few monks expelled in 1534. The baroque vault was constructed after the Turkish occupation, at the start of the restoration (18th century). The towerless church stands on a clear glade in the forest; despite its angular form, it has a graceful effect and truly fits the landscape. This is the only intact Romanesque Cistercian abbey church in Hungary.

From the early 19th century, a hard tile factory operated on the same meadow for nearly 100 years, very close to the old walls. It was not the only one in the Bükk region producing lead-glazed pottery fired from local clay. These were cheaper than porcelain but gave a similar impression at first glance.

In the footsteps of the fleeing monks

The K mark turns right at the small parking lot after the abbey and follows a wide road in a beech forest at the foot of the mountain. Although we are low altitude, and the species is usually found higher, the cool-loving beeches found excellent habitat here in the shadow of the mountain (whose sunny summit is mostly occupied by oak woods and rock grasslands).

The shrub rising in the power line corridor is not an uplifting sight, but the section soon ends, and we emerge beside forestry buildings at a meadow named after the tourist writer Lajos Kolácskovszky who lived at the turn of the 20th century. Above, on the hillside stands the Telekessy guesthouse, named after István Telekessy, Bishop of Eger and founder of the Eger Seminary. The Hungarian Tourist Association's Eger Bükk Section received the building as a gift from the institute in 1930. Via a generous staircase, next to the Blue Trail's stamp, we can walk up to the long building and covered rest area.

The K mark turns left and now we tread the gentle ascent of the Fűzfás-lápa valley, the Great Gorge. We climb beside stream beds on forest roads; the mid-aged forest changes into dense young growth. At a resting place, a sign draws attention to the Pap-sűrű forest part: when the monks permanently left the Cistercian monastery of Bélapátfalva at the beginning of the 16th century, they supposedly hid in this area for a while. Whether they really chose such a close hiding place after leaving home is questionable. Nevertheless, Paprakás, located in the Kis-Szoros valley, is, according to tradition, named for a stone cairn raised in memory of a monk killed during a flight.

Chapel visit

The wide forest path reaches the Kis-Szoros saddle with a gentle left turn: sunlight sparkles on the lush grassy, pleasant clearing. On the other side, near the continuation of the mark, we find a bench and table. Again entering the thick forest, the gently sloping dirt road slowly nestles at the bottom of the valley; huge beeches sprawl beside the stream. Opposite, bright light pushes into the dark forest: on the small meadow of Gilitka Chapel the small sanctuary’s whitewashed walls intensify the sunlight.

The chapel is named after Saint Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, and stands beside the historic Eger road. It owes its name to the local inhabitants’ prayers for Saint Anna's help for safe childbirth and child-rearing. On Saint Anna’s day (July 26), people from Bélapátfalva and connected villages visited the chapel in procession where mass was held. They brought their equipment; only a picture of Saint Anna and a portable pulpit were on site. All this happens in a valley named after II. Kilit, bishop of Eger, founder of the Cistercian abbey at Bélhármkút (Gilitka is a diminutive or folk form of Kilit). The building standing on a sunny little clearing by the sound of the stream was last renovated in 2006. Opposite it is a covered tourist rest area.

We turn out of the shallow valley with a slight ascent, continuing on the Köves-bérc ridge. We walk in managed, varied forest alongside wildlife protection fences; the gently rolling landscape presents no significant challenges but offers little sight to draw our attention. At a point on the side of Tardos hill, the canopy narrows and we have a view towards Nagy-Eged and the rock terraces of the Felnémét mine in the foreground. From here, the character of the landscape changes somewhat: as if we had teleported to the warmer, rocky grassland-like southern Bükk area; we tread nicely sunlit low oak and hornbeam woods. Due to the southern exposure and more loosely closing canopy, the temperature noticeably rises, then suddenly it feels as if the forest had been cut down.

On the basalt ridge above the gorge

We reach lush rocky grassland dotted with brownish rock blocks, surrounded by undisturbed forest covering the slopes of the rounded hills. Felnémét mine is opposite, while below, houses of Szarvaskő can be seen at the meeting of valleys. The Eger stream bends into a deep valley; from below, the noise of the busy motorway and railway filters upwards.

Closer inspection of the rock reveals a darker, more massive, smoother material compared to the limestone familiar from the Bükk. Here around Szarvaskő traces of Jurassic period oceanic volcanic activity unfold: at the boundary of crust plates of a splitting ocean basin, magma flowed through a fracture line onto the seabed and solidified into basalt.

The Eger stream, which follows the motorway and railway tracks forced into tunnels, has cut into this hard rock, creating the country’s longest basalt gorge. Looking around, aside from the dense, undisturbed forest, the winding nature of the valley strikes the eye. Previously, softer sedimentary rocks covered the basalt, into which the watercourse meandered left and right, bypassing its own sediment load. When it reached the volcanic layer, this winding course was inherited.

We hiked on the mountain ridge between the old and current Eger transport routes: the town’s trade was hindered by the Bükk mountains making northern transport difficult. One traditional route followed the valley of the Eger stream via the Szarvaskő customs point, then jumped over to the Gilitka valley. But at the Szarvaskő gorge, the narrowness was such that carts had to be pulled up to the valley side. To solve this, Archbishop János Pyrker had the rock corridor widened with explosives in 1839, creating the predecessor of today's road. The railway built in the early 20th century, however, crosses several terrain-born obstacles via tunnels. Looking higher, the ridge of Kékes mountain in the Mátra and its iconic TV tower appear as a thin line behind the hills.

Szarvaskő

Continuing, we pass through a charming oak grove then find another panoramic clearing. Below unfolds the gorge; the slope of Keselyű hill, pierced by a railway tunnel, is clearly visible, and the rocks sculpted by the stream come into view. Szarvaskő’s small valley basin is lined with houses, above which the Major-tető radio tower and lookout peak.

The stream circles the castle hill, our next destination: following the path, after a small castle, we reach a fork beneath the trees. From here, the K/ mark leads right to the small ruins of the castle. From a railing-secured lookout, we again observe Szarvaskő and the circular foundation of the former large tower is revealed.

It is worth inspecting the rock again: the basalt flowing onto the ocean floor cooled quickly in the cold, its surface began crusting, and swollen by replacements, it took a rounded shape – the presence of this pillow lava formation is unique in the country. The volcanic rock giving the ruins its base is said in legend to be named after a deer chased into the depths by dogs.

The 13th-century castle was built by King Béla IV following the Mongol invasion; the settlement developed only afterward. The fortress personnel attached to the Eger castle arrived in weekly shifts and received food in satchels for those periods – hence it was among the so-called "satchel castles." When the Turks advanced on the castle, the defenders fled – so the gorge was Ottoman-held for about a century. When the fortress was retaken at the end of the 17th century, some Turks stayed, converted to Christianity, and took the surname Szarvaskői. The castle, rendered useless, gradually fell into ruin from the 18th century – although hardly anything of the walls remains visible, its stones can be found in several buildings of the settlement.

Returning to the K mark, we turn right and soon descend into a small side valley, through which we reach the edge of Szarvaskő. Among the houses, we soon arrive at the main square – looking back, the grim basalt rock carrying the castle towers above the settlement. Next to and opposite the parking lot, near the pub, is the bus stop where our route ends.