From Palkonya to Siklós - cross the Villány Hills horizontally!

Itinerary

• From Palkonya, following the K+ mark, passing by the Saint Bartholomew Chapel, we reach the Siklós valley.

• On the K mark we head west in the valley.

• From the collapsed hunting lodge, continuing to follow the mark, head north-northwest!

• Crossing the Vokány-Siklós road, follow the P mark southwest!

• On the Csukma hill, turn left (south) on the S mark, between the Makári vineyards (Götz estate)!

• Continue on an earth road, then reach Siklós on an asphalt road.

Detailed description of the route

From Palkonya to the ruined hunting lodge

Palkonya is a village founded in 1296, although after the expulsion of the Turks it was left with only 8 houses and 20 inhabitants. Its wine cellar row began to gradually develop from the early 19th century and consists of fifty-three historic presses officially declared as monuments. Every year on Pentecost Sunday, the locals, together with the local government, organize the Pentecostal Open Cellars event here. The most characteristic building of the village is the church, whose neoclassical tower was financed by the Batthyány family.

Turning our back on Palkonya, we leave the main road near the railway station and start the ascent into the hills. We go up a rocky road on a steep hillside, where walking among the rows of vineyards, we spot the Saint Bartholomew Chapel. Built in 2006, this place of prayer stands under a spreading horse chestnut tree on the hilltop. Its location and orientation were arranged according to medieval customs. It was built from hand-pressed bricks and oriented so that on August 24, Saint Bartholomew’s Day, the rays of the rising sun illuminate the sanctuary and the image of Saint Bartholomew.

From here we head west through the vineyards of Palkonya. On the right in the valley, the village can be seen with the church tower and dome; in good weather, Pécs and the Mecsek hills also appear in the distance. The road is winding, with K+ tourist markings painted on the vine stakes. Following these, we turn into the forest and stroll down a gentle slope between Luca-karéj and Török-cser in the Siklós valley. Turning right at the fork, we reach a small clearing where a wooden board indicates the Vylyan vineyard estate. On the right side is a hunting stand, and from here we follow the K mark painted on its side. We continue westwards; our not-at-all-straight path is bordered on the left by a large clearing. If it’s muddy, animal tracks in the puddles may suggest that after dusk many roe deer, deer, and wild boar roam here. Underfoot there is a nice, clean forestry road, making walking easy. Looking sideways, well-maintained vineyards can be seen in both directions—in protected rows behind a game fence on the right, and to the left the Hajdús and Mandolás hills. On the Villány hills, vines have been cultivated since Roman times and wine has been made. The ancient varieties were wiped out in the 1870s by the phylloxera (grape root louse) imported from America; currently, the most typical varieties are Portugieser, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Kékfrankos. The yield of the Villány wine region is European and even small by Hungarian standards; here quality counts, not quantity. For this reason, the range is very varied, with almost every winery trying to produce unique, high-quality wines.

Continuing to follow the K mark, turn steeply north. The path passes a ruined, collapsed-roof hunting lodge made of bricks in the acacia grove. Keeping this direction, we descend gently through young forest. On the right, an erosion gully borders our path; passing it, the road winds slowly further. After travelling one and a half kilometres through sparse acacia and hornbeam, we cross a beautiful large meadow bordered by forested hill slopes on both sides: to the right the pine forest of Császár hill, to the left Gombás hill. The path leads through a spacious, beautiful clearing under huge old willow trees. Looking north we spot the Pécs-Magyarbóly railway line. We continue our walk parallel to the stream and railway line across the meadow westwards, until we reach the Vokány railway station.

From the border of Vokány through Csicsó hill

We step onto the Vokány-Siklós main road, and after one hundred meters turn right onto the P mark. At the fork, we begin a steep climb uphill on the left, which is followed by a dirt road leading through a large clearing. This area is called Trinitás-puszta because it belonged to the Holy Trinity monastery founded in the early Middle Ages. The site was so devastated during the Turkish wars and Rákóczi's war of independence that the order abandoned it: the building once inhabited by monks now functions as a forester's lodge. Looking back, i.e., northward, there is a great view of Vokány. Reaching the top of the ascent, we walk through vineyards on the right, while beautifully renovated small wine-press houses line our path everywhere. For one or two kilometres, we must walk on a deep loess road with hanging roots, then reach a fork where an old stone cross indicates that we have reached the top of Csicsó hill. The Z tourist mark appears on the right, but we continue left on the P mark. Accordingly, we proceed left beside the cross, our path accompanied by young vineyards. Looking left in the distance, we spot the Fekete hill and Szársomlyó, from which the quarry area has been roughly cut out.

Although this route does not pass by, those who want to visit the famous Marian shrine should not miss the settlement of Máriagyüd, belonging to Siklós since 1977, reachable by following the P mark. The main attraction of the village of one and a half thousand inhabitants is the baroque shrine church built by the Franciscans, which was granted the title of basilica by Pope Benedict XVI.

We continue hiking among the vineyards of the Grócz winery until we see the stone cross on Csukma hill next to the road. Here we turn sharply left at the fork following the S mark. We head south through the well-tended Makári vineyards, then reach the wine-press houses of Akasztófa-dűlő on a weed-covered, no-longer-used field road, finally reaching the paved road on a dusty path. Crossing it, we get to the center of Siklós, the bus station, and the Siklós castle, which alone is worth spending a day on—few Hungarian castles have remained in such good condition. An interesting fact is that although Siklós castle became very popular thanks to the film The Captain of Tenkes, there is actually no evidence that either the castle or Tenkes hill had any role in the Rákóczi War of Independence.