Velem circular hike to the Kendig ridge

Itinerary

• From the Velem bus turnaround, we follow the K+ marker.
• We take a short detour on the K● marker to the Saint Spring.
• We return to the K+ marker heading towards the Saint Vitus Chapel.
• At the border triangle parking lot, we turn right onto the K▲ marker, which leads along the Kendig ridge.
• From the Red Cross, we descend on the P+ marker to the Velem delta rest area.
• Under the rest area, our trail joins the P marker, where we turn right.
• We return to our starting point, the bus stop, via Petőfi Sándor Street.

Detailed description of the route

From Velem to Saint Vitus

From the bus stop, we start northwest on the K+ marker, which soon turns left from the asphalt onto the 420 m long Nuschy Promenade following the Szerdahelyi stream, named after József Nuschy, the chief clerk in office in the 1930s-40s. From the small wooden bridge, you can already see the resting area around the Vasa spring. This once larger volume spring got its name from the rusty deposits it leaves; it is also called Vasas or Vas spring. Its water is not potable. Soon a branch leads to a right-side hillock, ending in a bench. According to legend, many loves were woven in this romantic spot.

At the end of the promenade, we reach the asphalt road, where we turn left to continue following the marker. At the next bend, we go straight towards the Saint Vitus Chapel. Along the way, 10 panels of the Cultures' Mountain nature trail present the rich and diverse history of the mountain range. In the steep sides of the deepening stream valley, in spring, a continuous field of salad burnet blooms, whose young leaves and flowers were once consumed as salad, and in folk medicine, it was used to treat scurvy due to its high vitamin C content. After the ruined house, we ascend further on a deep path, from whose sides beech trees and the well-preserved old roots of a black pine emerge.

At the end of the deep path, the K+ marker turns left. On the K● marker branching off here, we can take a short detour to the Saint Spring, which has been honored since a 16th-century apparition of the Virgin Mary. Its water was allegedly used to treat eye diseases. About 2000-year-old water conduit remains were uncovered nearby by archaeologists. A bit farther, we reach two mining tunnels carved in graphite phyllite from the 1950s. After these, the trail continues very steeply on the small ridge behind them; therefore, it is recommended to return to the K+ marker.

The Saint Vitus Chapel and its surroundings

From the forest path ascending, the white walls and red roof of the Saint Vitus Chapel suddenly appear among the foliage. We pass a slate outcrop with a Virgin Mary statue in its first hollow. From here, it is only a few steps to the chapel, named after the ancient Christian martyr who became a patron saint.

The history of the mountain peak and its surroundings goes back to the Neolithic but our more detailed knowledge starts from the Bronze Age. Then, living terraces were arranged below the peak. The mountain was probably an important leadership center, confirmed by a golden diadem found here and 13th-9th century BC bronze foundries uncovered. A local specialty was the use of a larger amount of antimony in bronze making (unique worldwide at the time!). The high-quality products reached Northern and Western Europe. Later, the Celts inhabited the area. At the foot of the mountain ran an ivy road and a guard tower controlling the water supply system serving Savaria. It is mentioned as a fortified site also in the Carolingian era. In the Árpád era, it was both a secular and religious center, whose castle is first mentioned in a charter in 1270 when it passed from Henrik Kőszegi to King Ottokar II of Bohemia. The fortress probably was destroyed by the end of the 13th century, but there is no exact data. The Saint Vitus Chapel was probably built on the site of one corner bastion in the 18th century. A 1757 inventory tells that a church with the title of Holy Cross was attached to the chapel, so besides the St. Vitus day on June 15, a pilgrimage could also be held at the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14. The building was significantly rebuilt at the end of the 19th century, gaining its current form.

Behind the chapel, from the nature trail board starts a small side path leading to an enclosed pit, currently about 15 m deep and clogged. A nearly 30-meter-deep horizontal exploration tunnel from 1952 crossed here. Opinions differ on its origin; some consider it a mine shaft, others a cistern.

Up to the ridge!

From here we reach the Blue Trail memorial, marking the former endpoint of the trekking movement during the Iron Curtain era. After the rest area, we pass the well-visible remnants of a trench opposite the calvary.

After crossing the asphalt, we continue in a sparse beech forest until we converge onto a dirt road. Passing a dark spruce forest and several anthills, we reach the border triangle mountain parking lot by an uphill climb, where tables and benches offer rest opportunities.

Ridge hike over the Kendig to the Red Cross

Here we reach the eroded east-west main ridge of the mountain range (Szarvas-kő – Írott-kő – Kendig – Kopasz-Kendig – Irány-hegy – Tábor-hegy). At the beginning of the Tertiary, when the area emerged from under the Lower Eastern Alpine thrust nappes, the exposed rocks underwent strong weathering under warm and humid climate, resulting in various clay sediments. Abundant precipitation washed away the weathering cover, forming a nearly flat slightly hilly surface, whose remnant—the main ridge—is the oldest surface of the mountain range.

From the parking lot, we head northeast on the K▲ marker—one of the most scenic sections of our route. After the spruce forest, we proceed at level along the long, undulating ridge to a recently logged saddle. Since this marks the eastern border of the Alps towards the Carpathian Basin, on the left we can enjoy a panorama of the Eastern Alps, including the mountains around Semmering and the two prominent eastern bastions of the Alps: the long Rax plateau and the Schneeberg massif. On the right, beyond the Little Hungarian Plain, the Bakony hills rise, and in clear weather, you can also see the witness mountains of Balaton Uplands, the Keszthely Hills, and the Rendek Hill. To the north, Lake Neusiedl and behind it the Leitha Mountains appear with wind turbines arrayed on its lower slopes.

After a slight ascent, we arrive at the 726 m high Kendig peak. Along the way, it is worth examining the layered, thin-leaved structure of the phyllite rock next to the road. At the peak, a radio station and a meteorological measuring station operate, which we bypass to the south. We reach another logged saddle, where two characteristic dead beech trees stand; then, entering the Kopasz-Kendig forest, we pass between a spruce forest on the left and a hornbeam-oak forest without acorns on the right.

From the formerly military base on the summit, now dismantled, only the asphalt road and some iron support pillars and concrete elements remain, along with concrete posts of the former wire fence standing upright. The acid soil below the acornless oak forest is an excellent habitat for large patches of black blueberry and bilberry in the ground layer. From the outer fence, a charming section follows. We pass a carved boundary stone from 1923, then descend through a blueberry patch to the asphalt road leading to the former base. Here we turn right and follow the trail to one of the largest hiking route junctions in the range, the Red Cross. Previously, this was the shortest route from the vineyards’ villages to the pilgrimage site of Rőtfalva. The crucifix set up in 1984 is surrounded by six large acornless oaks, with a resting area created beside them.

From the Red Cross to Velem

We continue south on the P+ marker. Passing first a large blueberry patch on the left, then a spruce forest, the next mixed forest alternates between beech and sweet chestnut dominance. After about 1 km, we reach a Y junction; taking the left branch, we go straight ahead (the marker is worn). The road turns east and after a sharp bend with a steep, iron-reinforced red embankment, we reach the merging with the P● marker. On the right in front of us stands a tall forest pine on a small hill. With a short detour, we visit the Borha spring originating here. During the Iron Curtain era, Hungarian tourists could not access their previously preferred destinations in the higher parts of the range, so they continued to explore the lower areas, resulting in the protection of several springs during the 1960s and ’70s. One of them is the Borha spring, which was also a checkpoint of the National Blue Trail between 1977 and 1990. Its name refers to the area, but there are also explanations suggesting it comes from the exclamation “If wine flowed from here, it would be good!”

From the spring, we descend south towards Velem. Before reaching the bend of Terv Road, where we will turn right, it is worth taking a short detour to the left: a 29 m long tunnel from 1952 closed off by a “fence” hides in the valley. Soon, on Terv Road, we arrive in the Velem delta, where we walk left alongside a rain shelter and a barbecue area.

Just below the rest area, we reach the P marker, where turning right, we cross the asphalt road twice and then cut the last large curved concrete slab on a small wooden staircase in the bend. Afterward, turning left on the asphalt, we return to the settlement. Before returning, it is worth visiting the archaeological theme park, whose now destroyed predecessor was created by archaeologist Gábor Bándi in 1979-80 on Saint Vitus Hill. On the plot opening from Petőfi Sándor Street is a replica of a late Bronze Age house excavated in 1975 at Saint Vitus, and behind it, a replica of a late Iron Age ground-deepened craft workshop found in a 2004 excavation in Sárvár. From here, we reach the bus stop via Petőfi Street or the parallel marked Nuschy Promenade.