In the attraction of Nagy-Gerecse

Itinerary

• Starting from the center of Tardos, we follow the Z /K+ markers northeast along Rákóczi Ferenc Street, then continue on Bányahegyi Road ascending and leaving the village.
• At the Tűzköves junction, turn left onto the K+ marker and continue along the side of Nagy-Gerecse.
• Our path soon joins the National Blue Trail K marker, where we turn left and continue hiking.
• Next to the Serédi Castle, we turn right onto the fork with the K▲ marker, climbing onto the ridge of Nagy-Gerecse.
• Avoiding the main peak, we begin descending on the western side of the mountain, continuing along the K▲ markers.
• At the base of the mountain, our path joins the K+ marked trail, turning left and soon connecting to the dozer road from Bánya-hegy marked Z. From there, we follow the now familiar Z /K+ markers back to Tardos.

Detailed Description

Tardos

"Tardos' greatest treasure lies in the marble mines beneath the Gerecse mountain, which are so rich that their leaseholders supply nearly half of Hungary, primarily transporting the marble for smoothing to Almás and Piszke. For the same reason, the locals earn their living mainly through work and transport in the marble mines." – This is stated in the mid-19th century country description that well summarizes the traditional economic role of the region.

The history of Tardos has been shaped from the very beginning by quarrying and related activities, which continue today, as red limestone from the Jurassic period, commonly known as red marble, is still extracted from nearby Bánya-hegy. However, the entire neighboring area, including Héreg and Tarján down to the Danube shore at Süttő, Piszke, Lábatlan, and Dunaalmás, mainly lived from stone, and partly still does. The rock must not only be quarried but also processed and transported. For centuries, generations of families have performed stone carving, woodwork for wagons, and quarrying, as transporting and loading the heavy, large stone slabs required special knowledge and tools.

After depopulation during the Turkish era, the 18th-century resettlement was carried out with Hungarians, Slovaks, and Germans, making the broad region ethnically mixed. Communication among the three languages was further enriched by Italians, skilled in working with stone, who settled in several waves; their descendants of marble workers still live here. During World War I, the number of locals increased with prisoners of war from the Monarchy, brought from the frontline as marble quarrying experts from Carrara. A unique mixed vocabulary evolved regarding stonework and processing. In the Gerecse villages over time, the local quality limestone has become characteristic even on peasant houses. Larger-scale quarrying began in Roman times, expanding further during the Kingdom of Hungary. Over the centuries, the limestone was used in numerous buildings, statues, and tombs both domestically and abroad.

The formerly Slovak-settled Tardos has an active community life, including a school and kindergarten, a dance ensemble, a folk singing circle, a library, a community center, a Slovak ethnographic house, and the memorial house of the renowned Turkologist-historian Lajos Fekete. An interesting cultural highlight is the Radio Museum, located in the owner's house, featuring about 120 functioning old devices.

The village's life and history are symbolized by the red limestone featured on its coat of arms. Alongside tools used for carving and quarrying, four crowns are depicted, symbolically also related to stone. According to legend, Claudius, Castorios, Simpronian, and Nicostratos were famous stonemasons in Pannonia during Roman times. Their work caught the attention of Emperor Diocletian, who gave them increasingly more commissions. However, after their conversion to Christianity, they refused to carve a statue of a Roman god, and the ruler, known also for Christian persecution, executed them. Thus, they earned the crown of martyrdom and are called Quator Coronati ("The Four Crowned Ones"), the patrons of masons and stonemasons. According to a Hungarian baroque tradition, they suffered martyrdom around Tardos.

From Tardos to the former mining railway

Our hike starts from the spindle-shaped Church Square, which also holds the Catholic church, branching from the main road passing through the village toward Süttő. Within 100 meters there is a grocery store, restaurant, and pub; if needed, buy supplies! From the main square, you have a good view of our destination—the flat ridge of Nagy-Gerecse—and the closer Bánya-hegy quarry. Following the Z and K+ markers, beside the Kemencés inn, we head northeast on the sidewalk of Rákóczi Ferenc Street, cross the bridge over Bikol creek, and begin ascending. We pass the building housing the radio exhibition, then the mayor's office, whose entrance is, of course, covered with red marble slabs. The red rock echoing throughout the village appears in many places—fences, parts of buildings, monuments, and statues were made from it.

Climbing higher, above the rooftops, we get a closer view of the reddish stone chaos of the Bánya-hegy quarry. Approaching the edge of the village, we walk on the asphalt of Bányahegyi Road, then after the last houses, switch to a gravel road. During working hours, we may need to step aside due to trucks kicking up large dust clouds, the modern successors of wagons, transporting limestone slabs and blocks to processing plants.

Continuing to ascend, we soon reach the forest edge, where it is worth looking back. We get a good view of the streets and buildings of Tardos settled in the Bikol valley, with the Gorba hill densely forested behind and the distant Öreg-Kovács slope. Passing a barrier among the trees, after a few minutes we reach the Tűzköves junction, where a tourist signpost indicates we must leave the transport road. Turning left on the K+ dirt trail, we climb further and join the National Blue Trail after 500 meters.

Not far before the junction, we can recognize the former Süttő – Bánya-hegy narrow-gauge railway, which operated from 1917 to 1971, transporting red limestone and timber to the Danube valley, and carrying hikers in both directions. At Bikolpuszta, the rail line branched into two in the forest, totaling 24 km in length. Many traces of it remain in several places, and an adventurous hike can be made along this much-experienced path, telling stories from the era after wagons but before truck transport.

An old linden and Serédi Castle

Turning left on the K markers, this color leads us to Serédi Castle. Through a young forest, along a trail-wide path covered on both sides in dense blackberry bushes in places, we continue. If in season, we can pick the vitamin-rich, juicy delicacies along the way. Crossing the coppice, our path joins a wide forest road, and the environment changes dramatically: we arrive among magnificent hornbeam trees. Shortly after, the scenery intensifies, with grassy oaks mixed with silver trunks, as we begin turning into the northern slope of Nagy-Gerecse along a loess deep path. At the fork of the Csonkás ridge, a majestic oak matuzalem greets us. This ancient tree is both a witness to ancient times and a landmark: from here, the terrain softens, and we hike on a pleasant level path for the next 2 km.

The northern, cooler slope of Gerecse steeply falls toward the plain, with the panorama hinted at through the canopy veil. At one spot, a small window opens between the trees, revealing the varying-colored mosaics of land use in the Little Hungarian Plain stretching along both sides of the Danube, the hills of the Garam region, and the volcanic mountain ranges of Barsi and Hont on the horizon. On the side facing Gerecse peak, vivid white limestone rocks speckled with green moss enliven the surface. Taking a turn, the forest's oldest tree, roughly 250-year-old Sandl linden, invites a stop to admire. Although its crooked, gnarled root has been pruned by the storms of time, it still stands dignified as a guardian.

Following the K markers, we pass a neglected and overgrown resting place and the site of a dried-out spring, then suddenly the forest disappears to the right. In a clearing behind a fence stands a towering mansion-like building. We have reached the former prince-archiepiscopal holiday home, built in 1935 by the then Archbishop of Esztergom, Justinian Serédi, after whom it is named Serédi Castle. For centuries, this area of the Gerecse was an archiepiscopal estate, with the undisturbed forest providing a good place for rest, retreat, and spiritual contemplation. The impressive building passed to state ownership in 1950 and functioned as a children's holiday home until the 1990s. Then the church regained it, and since then it has been operated by the Franciscan high school in Esztergom for camping and vacations for students.

Quarries and primordial crocodile

Before continuing our hike, there is the option for a short detour to examine an abandoned red marble quarry. Opposite the holiday castle fence branches off a forest road without tourist markings, leading to the around 700-meter-distant no longer operated quarries of Kis-Gerecse. We pass two vertical shaft caves, the Tűzköves and Jura pits, whose entrances are closed with grates, and shortly stand on the railing-protected edge of the mining courtyard roof. From here, we get a beautiful view over the stretches of the Little Hungarian Plain and the low rolling hills of Gerecse toward the Danube valley.

Opposite, you can see the highly protected quarry of Nagy-Pisznice, which may only be visited with permission from the Duna-Ipoly National Park. This is because its rock ledges are nesting and periodic habitats for peregrine falcons and saker falcons. The saker, identified with the Turul bird in Hungarian tradition (some opinions even trace the mountain range's name to the bird), nearly disappeared from the Carpathian Basin in the second half of the last century due to adverse effects. For the peregrine falcon, nesting was not recorded domestically for thirty years. As a result of an initiated effective protection program, the breeding population of both species is happily increasing.

Another (ancient) zoological curiosity of Pisznice is that in 1996, fossils of a previously taxonomically unclassified ancient crocodile were found here. This reptile lived about 180 million years ago in the Tethys Ocean, whose bottom is now layered with the quarry's material. The significance of Magyarosuchus fitosi is that among crocodiles, it was among the first groups to adapt to a marine lifestyle. The sensational find can be seen at the Hungarian Natural History Museum.

Descending on the trail to the visitable Kis-Gerecse quarry yards, we can closely examine the fantastically shaped, brightly colored red, yellow, and gray limestone. The walls are also unique because they bear the most challenging rock climbing routes in Hungary, made possible by the quarrying method. On weekends, it is not unusual to see sports climbers attempting to ascend the rocks.

Heading to the main peak!

At the junction next to Serédi Castle, we leave the OKT route and turn right onto the K▲ marked forest road, which leads to the plateau of Nagy-Gerecse, 150 meters above us. Passing under power lines, we stroll by the ruins of an old forester’s house, then at the Jusztinián resting place intersection, we join the service gravel road of the TV tower standing on the peak, sporadically paved with asphalt, and fight the ascent diagonally along the hillside.

At the wide edge of the summit, we arrive at the base of the TV tower reaching to the sky. Circumventing the 126-meter high building opened in 1972, the terrain mellows, and through a lovely, airy oak-beech-ash mixed forest, after a GSM repeater, we reach another clearing where the K▲ marker turns left and descends along a fence protecting the growing forest.

If we make a detour to the geodetic cylinder, we reach the clearing through the oak-beech-ash mixed forest after a GSM repeater, where the third tower of the summit region rises. The four-story geodetic measuring tower's top rises above the tree canopy, offering a stunning view. Perhaps we do not even realize how lucky we are because, except for short periods, past hikers could rarely enjoy the panorama from here and may not have been able to reach the mountain top.

Let's flip through earlier writings, and the history of hiking is interesting and instructive! According to the first detailed Gerecse hiking guide published in 1940, the Nagy-Gerecse "is a strictly forbidden area; permission must be requested from the prince-archiepiscopal office." Even if a hiker at the time climbed it, there was no view because "there was a lookout on the beautiful flat top's northern edge, but it can no longer be used." By 1960, the situation changed: "An assault on the top on foot. But the ash-covered top of Gerecse doesn't give in easily. The heart races, lungs pant, muscles tremble. It takes twenty minutes to conquer. Then another ladder grip to the swinging lookout tower, and before us is Transdanubia."

The geodetic tower is still dangerous

Seven years later, the 1967 Gerecse hiking guide states: "...heading east to the Nagy-Gerecse – a wind forest clearing, but due to missing the triangulation pyramid, the summit point has no view." In the 1970s, the TV tower and geodetic concrete cylinder were built, and to celebrate this, the marked path crossing the summit was discontinued, and the mountain's hiking trail network was reduced for forestry and hunting reasons. Thus, the subsequent 1983 guide doesn't mention anything about the location. In the 1990s, the marked path crossing the main peak was designated again, and the geodetic measuring tower gradually gained lookout function.

A total of 107 similar buildings were erected across the country for surveying and mapping purposes. With the spread of satellite remote sensing, they became redundant and thus neglected. Some of them are heavily deteriorated and dangerous to enter. However, if the ladders and steel floors are available, by moving carefully and cautiously, we can climb them at our own risk! Fortunately, tourism-related renovations started in the 2010s, and some were partially rebuilt into lookouts (e.g., Csóványos, Pilis-tető). Let's hope that this relatively well-maintained tower will soon officially become a lookout!

Climbing the ladders carefully and at your own risk, you get an excellent panoramic view from above. You can see far from here and study the surrounding landscapes well, looking beyond the slopes of Gerecse. Below us, the former Nagy-Pisznice quarry reddens the mountain slope like a wound. Beyond the Danube ribbon, the volcanic peaks of Börzsöny close the horizon, with the Esztergom basilica in the foreground. Turning east, you can see Pilis rising behind Nagy-Gete, some peaks of Visegrád and Budai Hills, and furthest away, the peak of Naszály over the Danube Bend peeks out. Southwestward, you can observe the contours of Vértes and Bakony, while west and north the plain of the Little Hungarian Plain is shrouded in haze. The silhouette of the Komárom bridge is clearly visible, and in clear weather, the Little Carpathians and the Tribecs ridges framing the plain also appear on the horizon, even the highest of the Selmec mountains, Szitnya, shows itself.

Descending from Gerecse

After we've looked around well or rested, the final part of our route lies ahead: descending from the mountain. Returning to the main square of Tardos is a 4 km distance, during which we descend approximately 350 meters with varying gradients, representing the most strenuous part of our hike. Initially, the slope is comfortable; we trot down through young, park-like forest until reaching a fenced reforestation. First, we turn right at its corner, then left at the next, descending steeply through old oaks and beeches on rocky, root-covered, rain-washed terrain of the Gerecse slope.

Along our path, moss-covered large rocks decorate the forest floor. Except for the inconvenience caused by the terrain and slope angle, we cross a truly special forest section. Finally, at the bottom of the slope, our marker merges into the National Blue Trail route; here, turning left, we walk about 100 meters on the shared K and K▲ markers, then the K▲ branches off to the right again. We hike on it for a few minutes, then reconnect to the familiar K+ marker from the beginning of the excursion, turning left and arriving on the Bánya-hegyi transport road carrying the Z marker. From here, we walk on the shared Z and K+ markers, bidding farewell to the peak of Gerecse and returning to the center of Tardos.