Ridge hike on the edge of the Balaton Uplands

Itinerary

• A few meters northeast from the bus stop, the PL trail leads to Zádorvár.
• From Zádorvár, follow the P trail.
• Switching to the K trail, we reach the Hideg-hegy lookout point.
• After entering the forest, we soon turn onto the K+ trail.
• After 300 m, following the P trail, we arrive at Vöröstó.

About the hike in detail

Barnag

The starting point of our hike is the village of Barnag, located at the meeting point of the Veszprém Plateau and the Balaton Uplands. The village is first mentioned in a deed from 1082 as “Villa Barlog”. Its name derives from an older form of the word cave, “barlag”, which already appears in 1233 and originally may have meant a hole or pit dug into the ground. By 1526, the village had two parts: Barnag and Kys-Barnag. During the Turkish wars, the depopulated village was settled in 1714 by the first Rhine Franconian settler, Sebastian Czipff, and his household. In 1735, the village separated into Catholic Németbarnag and Reformed Magyarbarnag. Both parts had their own church, clerk, school, cemetery, and pub, and in 1947 the two parts merged into Barnag.

Our hike starts a few meters northeast from the Barnag bus stop on the PL trail. We leave the village on the Zádorvári road and head south, then southeast among the fields. To the right, beyond the patchwork of cultivated lands, we see the Felső-erdő forest, and to the left, we walk past a red sandstone cross carved without inscription. Before entering the trees, it is worth looking back: there is a beautiful view north over the sprawling southern Bakony landscape with the Atibor and Kab hills.

Through the wooded pasture

One interesting tree at the forest edge is a three-stemmed field maple (right by the roadside). On the wide, gravelly road, we reach the southern end of the village’s former pasture, where arriving in early summer we may encounter striking protected plant species, such as the ash-leaved large St. John’s wort. This plant, which can reach a height of 1 meter, produces a large amount of essential oil, causing a lemon scent around its base — especially noticeable in summer — and it can cause allergic reactions on contact. A milder plant is the military flower, also known as the tower helmet orchid, one of our most common orchid species. Its flower colors range from pink to crimson, rarely white, with cone-shaped inflorescences found mainly in dry calcareous grasslands and karst scrub forests. After the black pine patch of Felső-erdő forest, we walk under power lines to a new shrub-grassland where, following the cessation of grazing, gray pinegrass and common juniper have spread extensively. Here, a sign indicates the castle ruins 400 meters away.

Zádorvár (Zádor Castle)

It is worth dedicating a brief paragraph to some synonymous names of the castle. Its most famous name comes from a local legend in which during the reign of King Matthias, its lord, a robber knight named Zádor Tihamér, once captured a young maiden. The father asked the king for help, who, complying with the request, took the castle with his troops and threw Zádor’s body into the stream below the castle. The hill is also known as the “Burial of the Czechs,” a story to be told later. In 1650, in the testimony of a serf named Bácsi Gergely, “His house, also known as Bántava Castle… was held in Vásomb.” The area of Bán Lake, marshy from the Zádor spring, was named after Benedek Himfy, a former Bulgarian ban. A 1652 deed issued by Ferdinand III referred to the long-abandoned fortress as Pusztavár.

King Louis the Great, in 1371, tasked Benedek Döbröntei Himfy with enforcing wine tithe collections from the vineyards of Szabadhegy, likely extending this to vineyards of the Veszprém chapter on Pécsely Hill, overcoming their resistance. In 1374, he also built smaller buildings on the current castle site, prompting the chapter to take the matter to court. After four years of lawsuits, a judgment by Judge Jakab Szepesi obliged the Himfy family to leave the area. Later, with royal permission from Queen Maria of Anjou, royal steward László Vezsenyi built the still visible Zádor Castle at “Zabad” (Szabadhegy) in 1386. Since the land still belonged to the Veszprém chapter and border marks were removed during construction, an eight-year legal battle ensued, concluding in autumn 1394 with a court order to end the dispute. The Vezsenyi family abandoned the building by 1400 and began building the Nagyvázsony castle instead. Since Zádorvár was not part of the border castle system, it had no military role and gradually decayed over nearly 600 years, its stones and bricks often reused by locals for vineyards and buildings. The limestone forming most castle walls was quarried from the steep cliff near the castle but was poorly workable, so large basalt blocks were used for corners. This is why later “builders” removed corners for construction materials, and the castle chapel and gate tower corners are almost entirely missing.

Following the extinction of the Vezsenyi male line in 1472, King Matthias granted the castle along with other local estates to Pál Kinizsi. Flóris Rómer recorded in 1860 that it was also known as Kinizsi Castle. After the king’s death, marauding Hussite mercenaries settled in the ruins but were killed by Nagyvázsony castle’s captain. Their leader was a priest who left the Tihany monastery. Zádorvár became royal property under King Ferdinand III in 1652 and was granted to István Zichy, whose descendants owned the ruin until 1945. Built-in 1958, it is protected as a monument. Since 1991, it has belonged to the municipality of Pécsely, which entrusted its care to the Historical Memorial Foundation as of March 2016. In 2018, a Neolithic workshop was discovered during excavations of the gate tower. The flint tools and stones probably came from the flint-bearing limestone strata of Meggy Hill near Füred. Until 2017, a lookout stood in the southeast chapel sanctuary but was dismantled due to poor condition. Today, from the castle's south side with a small lavender plantation and shaded bench, one can view the direction of the Tihany Peninsula.

From Derék Hill to Hideg Hill

From the ruins, we set off back along the P trail. To Derék Hill, we proceed along a narrow path next to the Kőgát stone rampart on the ridge edge, through a charming juniper and sessile oak forest with grass patches. In autumn, the golden clusters of the goldenrod adorn clearings; around May, the pink blossoms of mountain onions and ash-leaved St. John’s wort. Shortly after the frosts, the richly silky purple pasque flower and yellow spring adonis bloom. The path suddenly widens. We pass the sign of the Hideg-hegy shelter, then continue on the K trail at the fork, circling the Hideg-hegy summit from the south, where a pleasant viewpoint offers another panorama toward Lake Balaton. Heading northwest across the meadow, we enter the forest at the next stone rampart.

Descent to Vöröstó

When our trail would turn left, we continue straight on the K+ trail. After 300 m, keeping direction, we follow the P trail, and after about 700 m reach the former wooded pasture of Vöröstó. Some sections—like the one we cross—have already become overgrown with shrubs or are inhabited by young hornbeam, but still contain many old trees left behind, including multiple hornbeams and sessile oaks over 3.5–4 meters in trunk circumference.

As we exit the forest, a beautiful view opens toward Nagyvázsony, the tower of the Vöröstó church, the towering Kab Hill, and the village calvary. On the gentle gravel road, we soon reach Vöröstó; turning left leads to the bus stop about 150 m away, the end point of our hike.

Vöröstó

The small village settled at the edges of the Vázsonyi basin has a Hungarian name referring to soil quality. In 1927, Dezső Laczkó found Mesolithic stone tools (blades, chisels, finely worked arrowheads, perforators, and piercing tools). Residents have also found polished stone axes in the fields, which were considered “donnensteins” or thunderstones, believed to have healing powers against tumors.

In the 12th century, the area belonged to the Veszprém Cathedral of St. Michael, then to Comes Sol, who in 1227 donated it to the Almádi Abbey. From the 13th century, it was owned by the Vázsonyi family, and from 1472 by Pál Kinizsi, whose estates passed to his wife Magyar Benigna after his death, later transferred via her second husband to the Horváth family until 1649. During the Turkish occupation, it belonged to Vázsonykő Castle. After the Horváth family died out, the king granted the estates to István Zichy in 1649. In 1722, Germans were settled from Honbach, and by 1732 they were numerous enough for a parish. After 1780, a mass arrival led some Vöröstó residents to move to Nagyvázsony in 1803. In 1860, Flóris Rómer described it as the richest village in the area, whose inhabitants lived from agriculture.