Pilgrimage route to the hermits of the Szalonna Hills

Itinerary:

• We walk northwest from the bus stop towards the Reformed church and cross the stream bridge on the P trail.
• From the church, turn right and follow the ZL trail to the Pauline monastery of Martonyi, bypassing Hármas Hill to the junction at the Nagy Clearing.
• We switch to the Z+ trail and follow it to the viewpoint at Kalackó Peak. We return the same way to the junction.
• We descend on the Z+ trail to Szalonna.
• To return to the starting point, we follow the familiar P trail and a short unmarked section from the Reformed church.

Detailed description of the route:

At the mouth of the Bódva Valley Gorge

Starting northwest from the bus stop, we follow the P sign straight for a few meters in the center of Szalonna, then turn right after crossing the stream bridge onto the ZL trail. We head north towards the forested, rounded summits of the Szalonna Hills. To our left, the Bódva emerges from the forested ridges near Stós Spa in Upper Hungary and forms the former border between Borsod and Abaúj-Torna counties along the historic road leading to Kassa. In the village center, at the bend of the highway, a special sacred site greets us: the Reformed church, preserving its ancient form, dating back to the Árpád era since the 13th century. The double rotunda church, tastefully decorated, was extended in the Árpád era with a Gothic, square-shaped nave. The building, enclosed by a stone wall, gained a standalone wooden bell tower in the 18th century. The church was restored in the mid-20th century, revealing consecration crosses from the first plaster and paintings depicting the legend of the martyr Saint Margaret on the walls that had been whitewashed by the Reformed congregation.

From the main road, we turn right onto a street following the stream on the P trail, leading to another special church in the village. The small, tidy Catholic church with a round dome blends into the dark green color of the surrounding trees and fields and the green wooded hills behind the village. The red-painted bell tower dome decorates the unusual building like a mushroom cap.

We continue northward on the ZL trail, which turns right before the last homesteads of the settlement, targeting the Borzlyuk Hill across meadows and arable land edges. During persistent climbing, from the bare hillside, our view widens over the emerging Szalonna Hills and the Bódva Valley. The river meanders between alluvial meadows and fields, alongside forested ridges of the Rudabánya Hills, and beyond them (in sufficiently clear weather) the distant ridge of the Bükk Mountains stretches. Opposite us, the side ridges of the Szalonna Hills unite at Hármas Hill, resembling Hungary's coat of arms with a shape like a triple mound. On the highest peak, however, not the double cross but a huge radio tower rises.

The sacred place of the Paulines, the ruins of Martonyi Monastery

The grassy ridge road climbs through pine groves and connects to the asphalt road from Martonyi leading to the TV tower. Continuing on, we first pass acacia and planted pine forests, then in the typical hornbeam-oak woodland of the area. The monotonous ascent is broken by a turn at a gravel road junction, where we continue our hike on the ZL trail along the increasingly steep slope on the cross slope of the 'Way of God'. Below us, the Bükks Valley opens more and more, and with a gentle curve, the gently ascending road approaches, bringing us closer to the stream flowing in the valley bottom. We now move through a majestic beech forest above the source of the stream, inviting us to rest with its simple forest comfort. The meadow of the monastery and the final climb to the ruins, where we will certainly have time to rest and reflect, are already visible.

The gravel road would lead with a wide turn to the saddle above the monastery, but before that, crossing the meadow, we reach the majestic ruins standing in the oak grove. The restored nave's robust shape blends with the crowns of centuries-old trees and its roof structure. The outbuildings were excavated in the 2010s in detail, and the ruins were also restored, raising the Gothic church of the monastery to a particularly scenic level. At the altar, a huge beech tree trunk greets us, as if carved from nature's altar, a medieval remains table standing at the ancient monks' place of sacrifice. Pacing among the foundations of the outbuildings, we can muse over centuries of memories, the everyday lives of the generations of monks who lived here, their spiritual life, customs, and the God-belief they represented with their lifestyle.

Strictly protected forests in the shadow of Hármas Hill

Next to the monastery, we return to the bulldozer road. With one last climb, we reach the saddle, where keeping the direction of Balogh Pál Field, the former hay meadow (ZL), we begin to bypass the steep block of Hármas Hill. On the northern side, we turn under the radio tower: the silhouette of a huge structure looming above us filters through the broad crowns of the beeches.

We traverse in a shady hornbeam-beech forest on the steepest sections, slowly crossing to the western side of the mountain block, where the majestic beeches behind us visibly fall away, and we continue walking in a bushy oak forest typical of sunny southern slopes on increasingly rocky terrain. Unfortunately, at the highest point of the hike, there is no view, but at least the bulldozer road leads comfortably and almost level through the rugged terrain. Although the neighboring Aggtelek Karst is more famous for its karst formations and caves, like its famous relative, the Szalonna Hills also consist of Triassic limestone. Crossing the rocky ridge and observing the surrounding landscape's morphology, we can also detect typical karst features, dissolved surfaces, and macroforms of plateaus and deeply incised valleys.

On the sunny side of the Szalonna Hills

Above the Limestone Valley, we join a bigger bulldozer road leading out to the southern side of Hármas Hill. Here, on the flat karst plateau, we switch to the Z+ trail, which gently descends on friendly, sloping terrain in the shade of the sunny side's oak woods. Leaving the plateau, the slope steepens on a rockier descent. Let's be careful because it is easy to miss the route to the hike's only real viewpoint. With a short detour and little elevation loss, the Z▲ trail cuts across a shrubby part, an oak grove, to Kalackó Peak, where from its bushy pasture, a panorama gradually unfolds over the wide Bódva Valley. Below us, Szalonna's houses line up at stone's throw distance, while the forested ridges beyond the Bódva River continue in the Rudabánya Hills. On the other side of the valley's flatland, we see the region's center, Szendrő, the former county seat. On the hill above the town stood the castle protecting the road to Kassa, now only remembered by the lookout tower rising above the trees at the hilltop.

Climbing back on the bulldozer road, we continue descending towards the village on the Z+ trail. We make a wide turn onto the last steep slope, where we leave behind the protective forest of the Szalonna Hills among old oaks. At the slope's bottom, we reach a broad bulldozer road leading in acacia forest towards the waterworks above the village. Once, Szalonna's vineyards lined here, but now the mass of people wishing to work the land has vanished, leaving the overgrown area reclaimed by scrub. We turn into the village and, joining the section at the beginning of the hike, arrive back at our starting point next to the Gedeon Mansion.