Mars-like craters among steppe meadows: circular hike on the much-seen hills of Gánt

Itinerary:

• We start from the center of Gánt, from the shop in front of the Roman Catholic church, following the K▲ sign to the geological park.
• Within the geological park, we follow the educational trail marked KT.
• From the geological park, we return to Gánt on the S+ marked trail.

Description:

Gánt battered by the storms of history

From Gánt, we set out from the Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Wendelin, from the parking lot between the grocery store and the Vértes restaurant, following the K▲ sign. The name of the church is telling, as Saint Wendelin is a revered saint in German areas, reflecting the village's roots well. The history of Gánt, like other secluded villages in Vértes, is burdened with a series of prosperities and tragedies.

Located in the mountain basin, Gánt lies on the ancient territory of the Csák clan and has been inhabited since the Árpád era. However, like the surrounding villages, it was depopulated during the Turkish occupation. After the Turks withdrew, Slovak charcoal burners repopulated the settlement, followed by South German settlers who by the end of the 18th century were the sole nationality living in the village. The village's prosperity was significantly influenced by the bauxite deposits found on its southern border, making mining the main occupation. At the end of World War II, however, the German-speaking village was almost entirely deported, and workers necessary for operating the bauxite mine moved into their vacant homes from the surrounding areas. At that time, the Vértes restaurant, located at the starting point of our hike, also functioned as the mining office.

Following the K▲ sign, we walk southeast between neat peasant houses and pine forests on the steep hillside along the main road. We pass a memorial with Cyrillic letters erected in memory of fallen Russian heroes after the war. In the last year of World War II, the front was stationed here for three months. The imperial forces established a strong defensive line in the Central Transdanubia region to stop the advancing Red Army. The first Russian soldiers appeared in the village at Christmas 1944, and in the prolonged brutal struggle, sometimes the German-Hungarian defenders, sometimes the Russians came out on top. The Nazi empire, which faltered here as well, capitulated a few months later.

The K▲ trail turns off at the bus stop a few hundred meters from the village, into the rocky hillside. We follow a short steep valley, then the path curves right toward a rocky hilltop spotted with stones. On a hill guarding the village, next to the tourist route, stands the memorial for the deported Germans, now surrounded by the Hungarian and EU flags. After the Nazis withdrew, decades of Soviet occupation followed, marked by acts of revenge on the civilian German population for the war's grievances. At the end of 1945, a law was enacted forcing ethnic Germans in Hungary to relocate: "A Hungarian citizen who declared themselves German nationality or German mother tongue during the last census, or who changed their Magyarized name back to a German-sounding one, or who was a member of the Volksbund or any armed German unit, is obliged to move."

The German-speaking population of Gánt had no chance; on May 18, 1946, nearly a thousand people were forced to leave their previous lives with only 20 kg of luggage per person. They arrived in the central Thuringian forest village of Eschwege, fortunately on the western side of the border dividing Germany. The village still maintains significant relations with Gánt.

From the hilltop dotted with steppe meadows to the reddening clay pits

From the viewpoint of the memorial, we have a great view of the Vértes landscape. Flat hills, more like mounds, surround the arable lands around the village, with contiguous oak forests north of Gánt, and meadows dotted with groves on the rocky slope above the village. Due to the brittleness of the poorly soluble dolomite carbonate, it crumbles rather than dissolves, so on the poor soil of the gravel hilltops and the sunny peaks, unique plant communities develop. Typical are the bluish harebells blooming in spring, the yellow adonis, and from late spring, the white-flowered, strictly protected Saint Stephen's clove flower, which is the curiosity of the area.

From here, our path starts a pleasant undulating course on a trail winding around rounded gravel hilltops, crossing small forests and groves. We continue to follow the K▲ sign, although the marked signs painted on the sparsely growing trees in the meadows are harder to find than simply following the winding strip cut into the grassy slope. The adventurous hike leads us through the captivating landscape with the atmosphere of a mountain roller coaster.

About 1 km from the village, we reach the highest point of our route, the Meleges summit at barely 260 meters. Although our elevation is modest, the hillside below steeply drops into the Gánt creek valley. Not many trees block the view, so wandering our gaze over the waving contiguous forests, we can have a definite summit experience. It’s worth stopping at the base of a tree or on the edge of the best viewpoint to relax and refresh.

The next section of the landscape changes drastically, as the previously pleasant meadows and groves give way to an open-pit mine cut deeply into the southern slope of the hill. After a short descent, a huge reddish pit appears in the background, which our route also crosses. In the landscape scar left by the former bauxite mine for decades, the red noble clay predominates, which only sparse trees and bushes have managed to populate in groups. It is somewhat miraculous that even in the often washed-away, soilless slope, anything has rooted at all. The unique bareness of this Europe-wide tour route creates the impression that we are hiking on a successful Mars expedition and that life has been established in this barren landscape. The contrast between the dark red bauxite and the green foliage of the trees is dramatic.

In the mining pit, pay special attention to the trail, as it is difficult to follow the markings painted on the bushy trunks! The path winds among the terraces between the levels of the former open-pit mine, eventually leading out from the recultivated mine. We meet the S+ sign, which navigates the route back to Gánt, but it is worth making a short detour to the geological exposure, the Balázs Jenő bauxite mining museum. Alternatively, we can skip this section and return later by car to the excavation and exhibition, as it is located directly beside the main road leading to Gánt.

The geological exposure of Gánt 

The combined K▲ and S+ signs lead down through a poplar grove to the country road between Gánt and Zámoly, where on the other side of the road is the Bagoly Hill geological exposure and the Balázs Jenő mining museum. The museum is housed in a very spectacular, semicircular gallery inside the hill, where we can see a detailed and interesting summary of bauxite mining and the raw material itself. There is an exhibition of mining equipment and vehicles used here. Directly in front of the gallery stand railway trains and locomotives used in mining, and independently of the museum, but connected to it, we can walk the former open-pit mining educational trail. If you are curious about the interesting geological and mining summary, it is worth spending an hour or two to get to know the Europe-famous mine more thoroughly.

It was here on the southern side of Bagoly Hill that a bauxite deposit was discovered in the mid-1920s, which grew into Central Europe's largest bauxite mine. This is explained by the fact that after the Treaty of Trianon, when Hungary lost significant parts of its mining areas, experts conducted intensified research within the new borders to explore mineral resources. South of Gánt, they found the bauxite deposit estimated at 3.5 million tons, but it was covered by a thick overburden. Between the two world wars, production started, mobilizing significant manpower, with nearly a thousand workers clearing the overburden and loading bauxite into carts. A railway was also built from the Bodajk main line for mining, allowing raw materials for aluminum production to be transported to processing plants.

The Gánt mine was declared a military plant during World War II, and the bauxite was used by the German war industry, mainly for aircraft manufacturing. After the war, mining operated at a peak during reconstruction, with increased mechanization. Nevertheless, production was suspended in the early 1960s, and the uneconomical mine finally closed in 1988.

Fortunately, some of the machines were preserved for exhibition, and a spectacular, interesting display was created at the cradle of Gánt’s bauxite mining. On the educational trail passing through the exposure, among the especially colorful decorations, we can follow the geological background of the raw material formation and the course of mining ourselves.

Back to Gánt 

After our educational round tour, we walk back a few hundred meters on the already completed K▲ and S+ sections, and this time turning toward the S+ sign, we return to the forest surrounding the mining pit. On the surface left after the open-pit mining, we walk through a sunny oak forest, encountering surprisingly large, old oaks. After the sparse trees growing on the red clay surface, hiking on the path through the oak forest is a real refreshment.

After a few hundred meters, the forest becomes sparser, and among the increasingly wider clearings, we come out to groved meadows characteristic of dolomite terrain, where we follow a bulldozer road back toward Gánt. Our path leads through the forest remaining between the two mining pits closest to the village, then after a short descent, through the dolomite rocky slopes, we reach the outskirts of the settlement at the Soviet war memorial. From here, we can walk back to our starting point, stop for a refreshment or meal at the Vértes restaurant, or even stay overnight at the guesthouse in the center of Gánt or one of the village accommodations.