Memories of seas on Rendeki Hill

 Itinerary

• From the bus stop, we start northwest on the K trail, then turn right onto the Z trail, which we follow until the border of Csabrendek.
• Turning left onto the ZT trail, it is worth taking a detour to the top of the Csabrendek quarry.
• After reaching the asphalt road, we turn right onto the P+ trail.
• At the edge of the inhabited area, we join the P◼ trail and return to Sümeg.
• To reach our starting point, we turn left onto the K trail.

Detailed description of the hike

From the inhabited area to nature

From the Sümeg bus station, we head northwest along the K trail. We pass by the bronze statue of Istók János, erected in 1907, depicting "the father of the town of Sümeg", Vincé Ramassetter. Ramassetter initially worked in his father's indigo dye workshop, mainly handling procurement. Besides his business, in 1848, he became the first mayor of the market town, where he also founded a school, hospital, and brick factory. Moreover, he was a successful winemaker of his time and one of the key figures in the coordinated foreign sales of Hungarian wines. On Kisfaludy Square to the left, we find the birthplace of the poet Sándor Kisfaludy, and in the Palotakert, statues of the poet and King Saint Ladislaus.

On the Z trail, crossing the former city wall, we enter the walled Turkish-era inner town, where the Sarlós Boldogasszony Franciscan sanctuary and monastery stand before us, alongside the bishop’s palace. The former was founded by Bishop György Széchényi of Veszprém (1648-58); its frescoes were painted by Béla Kontuly in the 1950s and 1970s. The church’s famous relic is the statue of the miraculous Virgin Mary of Sümeg, whose story began in 1699. Mária Zsófia Katalin Berghoffer, a Viennese lady suffering from a musculoskeletal illness, had a dream in which the Virgin Mary told her that if she visited the statue, she would be healed. In her second and third dreams, she learned that the location was in Hungary, in Sümeg. On February 4, 1699, she arrived in the town and after a long search found the statue. From touching it, a sudden healing began, and the next day she went on her own feet to report the miraculous healing to Bishop Pál Széchenyi, residing in the castle. The first certified miracle was followed by numerous other healings or rescues, such as the blind Kuruc soldier, the deaf-mute woman of Lágrád, or the infant who swallowed a needle.

The bishop’s palace next to the church was preceded by a smaller manor, likely built by Bishop György Széchényi at the end of the 17th century; the current form is linked to Márton Padányi Bíró. Between 1748 and 1755, the bishop spent 100,000 forints on construction and furniture. The originally Baroque-style residence underwent only minor renovations and Classicist reconstructions until World War II, after which it functioned as a school and dormitory. Today it is the only state-owned ecclesiastical castle.

Shortly after, we pass by the Varistálló near the base of Sümeg Castle, built in the time of Márton Padányi Bíró, similar to the town’s parish church.

Up the hill

After the underpass following the castle parking lot, we cross under main road 84, then after the stairs, pass by the waterworks fence and reach Fehérkő Street. Turning left from here, we take Vincellér Street and continue straight to Öreghegy. The house on the left edge of the forest was once the cellar of the poet Sándor Kisfaludy. The wooden gable house was built in Baroque style in the second half of the 18th century; on the west side, there was once a columned porch. The memorial plaque reads: “Honfi! honor this place and think of its old owner, Kisfaludy sang here heartfelt songs. 1876.”

Before turning left from the asphalt road to enter the Sümeg White Stones Nature Reserve, it is worth looking back towards Sümeg Castle. Rendeki Hill is the southwestern extension of Bakony, whose highest point, Csúcsos Hill, is 374.6 m. Its block rose in the Miocene geological period about 20 million years ago, tilting to the northeast. Following this, about 15 million years ago, for around 5 million years, the Badenian, Sarmatian seas, and later the Pannonian Sea, and the freshwater Pannonian Lake eroded and shaped the hillside. We can immediately observe this on the gravel road in the form of rounded, flat so-called abrasion pebbles, which were smoothed into flat, rounded shapes by the tides and currents of the Pannonian Lake.

Our forest path soon reaches a small clearing, where today a waterworks stands, and 150 years ago there were cellars and mountain huts. The richness of the meadow's flowers already suggests that the hill is also rich in protected plants; among them are wild garlic, spider orchid, slender pearlwort, small-leaved helleborine, and yellow coralroot. Returning to the limestone-loving oak forest, we can further explore the work of the besieging seas on the hill. The traces of three mentioned historical water level rises are still clearly visible today in the form of abrasion shelves, which we perceive on our path as alternating short steep and nearly flat sections on the ridge lying between two erosion gullies.

The hill's main composition is Eocene-aged, thickening towards the northeast, about 45 million years old Szőci Limestone Formation, on top of which in several places on the plateau lies the Oligocene-Lower Miocene age Csatkai Formation, mainly consisting of large river pebbles. The former formed on a normal-salinity shallow marine plateau. Some layers contain fossil remains in rock-forming quantities (sometimes 80-90%). Earlier, mainly the calcareous shells of foraminifers belonging to Assilina spira and Alveolina species are visible, while higher up we find Nummulites millecaput and N. perforatus, known as Saint Ladislaus coins, and if lucky, we may also encounter fossils of sea urchins.

Walk on the plateau

Reaching the plateau, our path turns left. We soon arrive at one of the main sights of our trip, the top of the White Stones. From one of the most beautiful lookouts in the area, on a clear day, looking south, you can see the Keszthely Mountains: Sarvaly Ridge, Szebike, Tátika, Hermántó Hill, Kovácsi Hill, Rezi Meleg Hill, Púpos and Hosszú Hills, then the Zalapáti Ridge and the Little Hungarian Plain. In clear weather, there is a good view of the Eastern Alps’ ranges, even the Seckauer Zinken about 200 km away. After the elongated Wechsel and Kőszeg Mountains, the block of Schneeberg rises sharply above the flat Little Hungarian Plain.

Countless large pebbles and boulders on the road around the lookout mark the Csatkai Formation resting on the Szőci limestone. Its stratigraphy consists of cyclic alternations of pebble conglomerates, sand-sandstone, clay, marl, and aleurolite layers. The boulders were likely shaped during the Ice Age from loose sand layers, their polished surfaces indicating Pleistocene winds – on these, from wind grooves, the direction of the former dominant wind can sometimes be inferred. The largest stone found on the hill measured 85×45×35 cm. Based on their morphology and composition, the stones are the sediment of an Oligocene river tributary about 30 km long, mountain stream(s), which probably originated from the Pelso High located beneath and south of today's Balaton.

From the lookout, we proceed northwest and then northeast along the edge of the plateau through the White Rocks Forest Reserve protection zone. The core area of the reserve is 47 hectares, where all forestry activities are suspended. It is surrounded by a 261-hectare protection zone, where near-natural forestry management is practiced. We pass the fence of the former military relay station and again observe some Csatkai boulders lying in a puddle beside the road.

From our path soon entering karst scrub forest, it is worth turning left on the ZT trail to go to the top of the Csabrendek quarry, from where the view extends from Kissomlyó to Kab Hill. Behind the Kissomlyó rising from the Little Hungarian Plain are the Sopron Mountains, then Ság and Somló are visible. From the Bakony ranges, Durrantós Peak, Kőris and Som Hills, Hajag, Borzás, and Kab Hill rise. Below us lies Csabrendek, with its late Baroque church built in 1790 and furnished in Rococo style.

Return to Sümeg

Continuing along our trail, we reach the outer houses of Csabrendek, where we can take a small detour to the mining yard, where we can circle on the Kőkatlan educational trail. In the mine, blocks of Szőci Limestone Formation, excellently suitable for construction, were quarried, including for the village's houses and church.

After reaching the asphalt road, we turn right onto the P+ trail and enter the forest on a boulder-strewn road among Eocene-aged rocks surrounding our path. Our way slowly levels off, and we reach the gravel access road leading to Csúcsos Hill. From here, we gradually descend to Sümeg, where we join the P◼ trail at the houses and return to our starting point. To the bus stop, we reach via a left turn on the already familiar K trail.