Pilgrimage to Drégely Castle

Itinerary

• We arrive at the foot of the castle from Drégelypalánk following the P+ mark.
• We reach Drégely Castle by the PL mark, taking a small detour.
• From the saddle below the castle, we return to Drégelypalánk also along the P+ mark.

Detailed description of the route

Walk in the village

We start our nostalgic walk at Drégelypalánk railway station, the current terminus. Originally, it was a connecting line between Vác and Ipolyság along the railway mainline in the Ipoly valley, but the Treaty of Trianon detached the railways at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains from Hungary to strengthen the newly formed countries. From the end of this truncated line, following the P+ mark, we head toward the village center.

Drégelypalánk got its name from the three-ring palisade castle that stood in the center during the Turkish occupation. After the rock castle above the village was destroyed, the Ottoman Empire built a fortress here in the Ipoly valley to control the main traffic route, marking its northern border. During the installation of the village utilities, the three rings of the palisade castle were found. The outermost was discovered near the Szondi memorial, while the inner rings were beneath the Holy Trinity statue group and the Szondi exhibition site. The fortress's center was likely on the high ground around the church, offering an excellent view of the valley below. The complex could accommodate up to two thousand horsemen and was the base for troops raiding the area. After nearly twenty years of hardship, the Hungarians managed to break through and take control. They resisted Turkish attempts for a long time, but in 1663, the garrison burned and abandoned the fortress, which was destroyed finally.

The P+ mark bypasses the Church Hill from the north. From the railway station, turning onto Honti Street, at the first intersection we turn left onto Petőfi Street, where a small street under the church leads us to the mayor’s office. If we want to see the reconstruction of Drégely Castle and the related archaeological finds at the beginning of the tour, we should turn off a few houses from the intersection to the Szondi exhibition center at 24 Fő Street — but we can also do this at the end of the tour. The exhibition presents several types of cannons and military tools, including a unique gold-threaded saddle found beside the castle, a unique find in Europe. In the room next to the exhibition, a short film about the castle's history and the legend of György Szondi is screened.

Normally, we visit the exhibition on the way back, as from the mayor’s office, the P+ mark continues on Rákóczi Street, winding out of the village. Leaving the settlement behind under the road bridge, crossing the tracks by the cross erected at the village border, we turn onto the former cart road under the vineyard hill. Nógrád county was once famous for its wine region. The volcanic hills covered with loess created similar conditions to the famous wine regions in eastern Hungary, but the viticulture here was completely destroyed by the phylloxera epidemic at the end of the 19th century and could not be revived. Locals now grow grapes on the hills for their own pleasure, much more modestly than a century ago. The information boards along the educational trail accompanying our route still show the former residents of Drégelypalánk in folk costume at the harvest festival.

The hillside above us is also famous for another reason: Ali Pasha set up his tent at the top of Arany-Gomb Hill during the siege of Drégely Castle, from where he had a perfect view of the target opposite and the hillside leading to it. According to legend, György Szondi was also buried here, but this cannot be confirmed.

The winding road in the Hévíz Stream valley crosses the railway again about one kilometer after the village at Sáferkút stop. From here, a few minutes' walk brings us to a charming clearing hidden among wooded slopes where spring water constantly bubbles up. The word "schaffer" means shepherd in German, indicating that German settlers replenished the depopulated inhabitants following the Tatar invasion and Turkish occupation. (In Drégelypalánk, there is also a chapel consecrated to Saint Vendel, popular among the German population as the patron saint of animals.) At the Schaffer spring, in well-maintained surroundings equipped with benches and tables, we can gather strength for the capture of Drégely Castle. Szondi’s legend is usually dramatized here on a stage set up in the clearing, with castle enthusiasts reenacting the siege of Drégely Castle in period costumes.

We take Drégely Castle

Leaving the clearing around Schaffer spring behind, we begin our ascent to the castle. At first, we walk on the gentle slope of a volcanic cone overgrown with acacias. This non-native plant, originally from America, has only spread in our country a few hundred years ago but has been declared a Hungarian specialty. Forest experts are now working to remove the acacia with its poor ecosystem and give the native oak species their rightful place.

The initial acacia forest is replaced by oak forest as we ascend the hill. The slope also increases, showing that we are approaching the natural fortification. A sign after a narrow kilometer indicates a shortcut uphill, which leads directly to the castle. It is worth switching to the PL mark, after a few hundred meters of intense climbing, we reach the clearing beside the castle. The steep slope we left behind and the rocky summit of the hill served as excellent defensive features — that is why the fortress was probably built here after the Tatar invasion, at the end of the 13th century. Its first official mention dates from 1285 when the walls were already standing. Initially owned by the Hontpázmány clan, the area later came under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Esztergom, who set up a splendid hunting lodge here; the size of the building has not changed since then.

The Ottoman Empire expanded northwards. With the fall of Buda in 1541 and the loss of Nógrád Castle, Drégely’s military significance increased. The small castle stood 444 meters above the surrounding area in a rather remote place, but despite this, it was defensible and strategically important due to its relation to the routes of the Upper Hungarian mining towns and the raids measured on these. In the middle ages, the flourishing Upper Hungarian mining towns saw it as one of their last hopes and supported the strengthening of the castle, which had so far served as a hunting lodge.

At the beginning of July 1552, the moment came for the Turks controlling the area to besiege the castle. Against Ali Pasha of Buda with an army of more than ten thousand, the defenders had barely one hundred and fifty men. György Szondi, the castle commander, had already experienced the Turkish destruction earlier, as he had also been forced to flee in the Battle of Mohács a quarter-century before. Perhaps this explains why he undertook the clearly hopeless fight despite the pasha’s multiple offers of mercy. The advancing Ottoman army used its usual tactics of bombarding the walls to rubble and then launching an assault. The first attack was successfully repelled, but only in the following day’s attack after a call to surrender did the vast army manage to crush the handful of defenders fighting on the hilltop.

After losing the battle, only ruins remained of the castle captured by the Turks. Its walls were not rebuilt, only a reinforced wooden watchtower was erected in the middle. As was customary for conquering Turks, Ali Pasha impaled Szondi’s head on a spear but allowed the castle captain to be buried honorably. Although the battle of Drégely was lost to the Turks, Ali Pasha’s army, combined with Ahmed Pasha’s forces coming from the Temesvár siege, was defeated two months later near Eger. Drawing strength from Szondi’s example of self-sacrifice, István Dobó, the captain of Eger Castle, held out until the last moment, successfully halting Ottoman expansion and giving hope to the Hungarians withdrawing into the Carpathian Mountains.

Back to the village

We comfortably descend from the castle on the opposite southern side through the gate arch. Here stood the old natural entrance carved into the rock. According to local legend, Drégely Castle was connected underground to Kámor and Nógrád castles by tunnels. The assumption is based on the presence of natural or carved cavities in all three castles, though these hardly spanned several kilometers. The PL mark leads us to the saddle south of the castle; we turn back toward the valley on the cart road leading up to the castle.

The castle summit is also fully visible from here, as we walk through continuous oak forest that waves from the Drégely side all the way to the other side of the range. This is one of Europe's great ancient oak forests, which the "life for oak" project aims to preserve for posterity. The dark green forest giants clearly thrive on the volcanic ridges.

From the saddle, following the P+ mark, we bypass the castle hill from the west, reconnecting with the section already traveled and returning to the village by the known route. At this time, it can be useful that in the summer season, the train stops at Schaffer spring. After comfortably resting in the shade of the ancient trees growing around the spring, we can return to the village even waiting for the train. If we have not done this on the way there, it is worth visiting the Szondi sarcophagus at the intersection of Fő Street and Honti Street, as well as the Szondi exhibition and tourism center next to the church.