In the western ends of Villány Hills

Itinerary

• We start from the bus stop following the Z trail southwest and continue through Csarnóta to the western slope of Kopasz-hegy.
• At the junction with the K trail, we switch to it, turn left, climb up to Kopasz-hegy, then after crossing road 58 we will ascend Tenkes.
• Just below the summit of Tenkes, we turn left onto the S trail.
• At the fork with the S+ trail, we continue along it and descend to Túrony.
• When we reach the S trail, we start following it again to the left. Crossing road 58 again, it ends just at our start/finish point at the bus stop, where it connects with the Z trail.

Detailed description of the hike

At the gathering place of the 48th insurgents

The quiet village in Baranya county, belonging to the Villány wine region, Túrony’s most famous monument is the renovated Árpád-era church we will get to know at the end of our hike. The village was likely inhabited long before its building, as 5-6 thousand-year-old Bronze Age pottery fragments were found in the area, and during Roman times a military road ran here. The first written record dates from 1237, under the name Turul – based on this Turkish-origin word, it is assumed the form Túrony developed similarly to the word for tower.

The village remained inhabited even during the Turkish occupation, but it entered the history books through one tragic episode of the 1848-49 freedom fight, the "battle of Túrony". After Lajos Kossuth called for insurgency due to Russian intervention, Gáspár Noszlopy, the county commissioner of Somogy, under his orders, commissioned Dániel Kossa, a rector from Marócsa, to recruit free troops who gathered in early June 1849 in the forests near Oszrő (today Csányoszrő) in the Ormánság region. The problem was that their leaders were mostly untrained intellectuals (including village pastors and teachers) who had little concept of the challenge ahead. Kossa’s methods were questionable: he threatened villages with arson and judges with bullets if they didn’t provide enough men. Therefore, the troops were not entirely voluntary, and their fighting spirit was inherently doubtful.

Some 5,000 insurgents, armed with scythes, pitchforks, and other tools, finally marched under Captain Gusztáv Mitterpacher through Vajszló to the Csarnóta forest, where the granichars (border guards of Serbian ethnicity fighting for the Habsburgs) led by Major Stokucsa, who occupied Siklós, scattered them almost immediately on June 9. It is unclear how many losses the insurgents suffered, but the granichars burned down Túrony in revenge after a Reformed pastor shot and killed one of their officers from the rectory window.

From the bus stop, we walk west then southwest along the Z marked tourist path connecting Csarnóta with Kistótfalu. We follow a gravel road past a cemetery – originally Túrony was likely located there, its inhabitants probably relocated after the Tatar invasion to the current village site. Leaving houses behind, we soon reach the charming Csarnótai Lake. We circle the privately owned, artificially created fish nursery pond from the south, then cross through a forest mixed with chestnut trees on the Sziget side, and emerge onto the arable fields near Csarnóta. In the open border area, it’s worth looking around over the waving wheat fields: behind a hunting stand, we can see the second highest mountain of Villányi Hills, the seemingly flat Tenkes with its locator tower on top, and closer stands Kopasz-hegy, which we can easily identify by the cylindrical stone lookout tower at its summit.

The wonderful panorama of Kopasz-hegy

During our hike, we will climb both these peaks, but for now, we head towards the church tower of Csarnóta. We walk on a dirt road into the secluded Drávaszög village, cross its only paved road by the Reformed church built in 1858, and continue in the opposite direction still following the Z trail past an old, dilapidated cellar. We pass through a markedly tunnel-like loess ditch to the fields beneath the western slope of Kopasz-hegy (or Nagy-hegy).

Mostly grain is grown here now, but the countryside is dotted with white-speckled press houses hiding in groves, bearing witness to a rich history of viticulture. This is no surprise: Csarnóta still belongs to the Villány wine region, and many residents are engaged in winemaking today, although, like around Siklós, it is mainly a white wine area. Among the vineyards planted on the surrounding hills, we can also spot a few. The landscape, though carrying traces of human presence, radiates an abandoned, timeless calm that invites quiet contemplation. To the north, behind the red poppies and the nearby wooded belt, the church tower of Csarnóta peeks out, with the peaks of Western Mecsek – Misina, Tubes, and Jakab-hegy – dominating the horizon, while to the south, our gaze meets the modest heights of Kopasz-hegy.

A few hundred meters on, the Z trail ends as it joins the higher order K trail connecting Villány with Diósviszló. We turn left here, pass by a hunting stand, and begin climbing Kopasz-hegy, which lives up to its name by ascending through increasingly sparse vegetation on a narrow, rocky path among limestone blocks emerging on the surface. Reaching the edge of the plateau, it’s worth looking back: according to a saying, Ormánság "lasts as long as the bikla (a local white underskirt) reaches", but from here the forest patches, vineyards, and farmland scattered across the plain seem to stretch into infinity.

Although only a few scraggy trees and bushes grow on the plateau of Kopasz-hegy, its limestone grasslands are rich in plants. Numerous colonies of the peppery-scented Stachys officinalis bloom yellow among limestone blocks, named for its sharp taste. Though it was used in folk medicine, for example to treat high blood pressure, do not taste it as in large quantities it causes vomiting and diarrhea. Soon we reach the cylindrical stone lookout tower built in 2008, where it’s worth taking a break to enjoy the magnificent panoramic view. Though the tower rises only a few meters above the 272 m high summit of Kopasz-hegy, we can not only scan the Mecsek range from it but also, on clear days, spot the Papuk mountains in Croatia to the south. The most dramatic element of the view is our next destination, the nearby flat Tenkes, and the pyramid-like silhouette of Szársomlyó marred by mining. In front, though it requires straining our eyes, we can spot the pilgrimage church of Máriagyüd, with Siklós on the right and the castle reigning over Sasbérc in the middle. If it rains, we can take shelter under the lookout tower.

We start the descent over exciting, rocky terrain heading east. As in other parts of the Villány Hills, the northern side is much steeper than the south; this is a result of Miocene southern-directed crustal movements that fragmented and "scaled" the sedimentary layers atop each other. Here, counting from the west, we walk on the second scale or block, the Tenkes mountain. Navigating along limestone blocks visibly jutting out along the rocky path, we soon reach a closed quarry, then the Tenkes csárda by road 58. This cozy inn has been satisfying hungry travelers’ appetites since 1889 and is famous for its high-quality cuisine. In 2006, the Baranya County Value Preservation Committee included it in the list of values worth preserving. This is the best dining option on our hike.

Climbing Tenkes

We carefully cross the Harkány-Pécs main road and, beside the buildings of Janus Winery and at the base of the vineyards, begin the steep climb to Tenkes. Over the next just over 1 km we overcome about 150 meters of elevation difference, but the consolation is that for the first time on our hike, a continuous forest shades us. As in other parts of Villány Hills, there are many acacias, but a bit higher up, more attractive oaks and ashes dominate.

At the top of the rise, the K trail crosses the paved road leading to the locator installed at the summit of Tenkes. We will switch to the S trail heading down from there, but if we feel like it, we can first hike up to the guarded facility – although there is no view from the summit for this reason, and the gate only allows access up to the fence. Along the road in May and June, the rare and colorful yellow variegated iris and the great centaury grow abundantly. Both plants are protected and have a symbolic value of 5000 HUF, so do not (not even) harm them, just admire them from afar! Thanks to a relatively recent clear-cut, we can also enjoy the view of the Mecsek in the distance.

The locator dominating the top of Tenkes is a protected facility, but interestingly, in 1975 the country's first Soviet-style hail suppression system's heart was also installed here: a mobile trailer-mounted radar to track cloud formations. Since the number of hail days increased drastically by the 1970s, South Baranya was chosen for the experiment because the area experienced hail damage more often than the national average on insured lands. If a cloud mass was detected by radar to threaten with hail, special plastic-coated or parachute rockets released silver or lead iodide inside, artificially crystallizing and thus "binding" the water essential for hail formation. Though hailstones still formed, they were much smaller and melted on the ground, mostly reaching the surface as raindrops. The locator could analyze clouds from a maximum 30-40 km distance, and 11-12 rocket launchers were installed county-wide. A more modern successor system has been operational in several parts of the country since spring 2018.

From vineyards to the Árpád-era church

If we return to the K trail crossing or did not climb the summit, following the S trail, we descend along the asphalt road with the Mecsek ridge in sight on the gentle northern slope of Tenkes. We turn left onto a dirt road at the S+ trail and continue walking through dense vegetation of lindens, oaks, and ashes towards Túrony. Coming out on the western side of the hill, the narrow path suddenly opens a view: to the left, we see the hills between Túrony and Csarnóta. Soon we reach the vineyards of Hegyderék, from where behind the vines we can already observe several previous stages of our journey: Tenkes and Kopasz-hegy. From here, the S trail leads through acacia thickets then along a hollow way through the Felső-Avas press houses. In a small clearing, we find a nomad campfire site with benches and a table.

A little lower, where we cross the S trail, we turn left and suddenly see the famous Árpád-era monument church of Túrony at the end of the hollow way. The original building likely had a vaulted sanctuary apse but was already extended in the 13th century. Then at the start of the 15th century, a new cloister vault Gothic sanctuary was built, demolishing the older one. The pointed triumphal arch separating the sanctuary from the nave is still visible inside today. After the Rákóczi rebels attacked and burned the village in 1709 (burn marks are still visible in the sanctuary), the population fled and only returned in 1726. The church was renovated with long work – walls were reinforced with buttresses and a beautiful coffered ceiling was made, whose original painted patterns were copied by the Zsolnay Porcelain Factory in 1913 for its products. Unfortunately, the ceiling was dismantled and transported away, so today only a few flower-patterned panels can be seen under the west gallery with a blue painted railing. Noteworthy furniture includes the blue Moses chair inscribed with a prayer. The building took its current form in 1827 when the tower was added and was renovated between 2000 and 2006. It operates as a Reformed church – Túrony’s population converted to the Reformed faith during the Turkish era, most still belong to this denomination today.

We continue walking along Kossuth Lajos street, still following the S trail, down to the busy main road 58, which we carefully cross again, and soon return to our starting point, the bus stop.