Dévaványa – Vésztő station (AK-07)

Itinerary:

During the route, we must follow the K marking all the way.

• Starting from Dévaványa, we walk eastwards on dirt roads towards Folyás-ér.
• From Folyás-ér, we continue on dirt roads between arable lands heading south to Körösladány.
• From Körösladány, we walk on the Sebes-Körös dam to Vidratanya.
• From Vidratanya, following the Holt-Sebes-Körös, we continue to Csolt Monostor.
• From Csolt Monostor, also along the Holt-Sebes-Körös, we arrive at Vésztő.

Detailed description:

Dévaványa – Körösladány

In the town of Dévaványa, we find the official Alföld Blue Trail stamp at the railway station, specifically on the wall of the waiting room. After stamping, we walk along Vasút Street and Sport Street to Szeghalmi Street, then proceed straight east. If time permits, we can make a detour south to the Main Square, where many monuments are available to explore. Towering there is one of the tallest (63 m) church towers of the Tiszántúl, proudly belonging to the Reformed Church. The town's history can be explored at the Bereczki Imre Local History Collection. Returning to Szeghalmi Street and leaving the built-up area, we still have about 2 km to travel on a low-quality asphalt road, which then widens to a dirt road at a farmstead. We walk east through arable fields, pastures, and now-abandoned old gas wells until we reach the forests along the Folyás-ér. After many fields, it is a relief for eye and soul alike to see the forest, of which little has remained in the Alföld today. Where there were once forest-steppe with natural vegetation, agriculture and animal husbandry have become the main livelihoods, so the forests have become victims of axes. Unfortunately, instead of oak forests, non-native species (e.g. pines, acacia) were replanted.

After leaving the forest and a pumping station, we soon reach a fork where we find the Folyás-ér imprint stamp on a Blue Trail post. Here we turn southwest onto a dirt road on the edge of the Folyás-ér forests, among fields and pastures. The monotony of the Körös plain is only broken by inland drainage canals and various water engineering structures (e.g., sluices). As the name indicates, the area has been shaped decisively by the Körös rivers wandering here since the Pleistocene (ice age). Abandoned and silted riverbeds form a network, covering the fine alluvial silts and clays. Settlements lie on flood-free floodplain edges and former river dikes. The tabletop-flat surface is enriched not only by fluvial landforms but also by remains of man-made earthworks.

About 4 km before Körösladány, the Alföld Blue Trail leads through a cut in a plowed mound to the right. This is the disturbed remains of an earthwork built millennia ago, a kunhalom. Kunhaloms are frequently encountered along the Blue Trail, so a few words about them are worthwhile. According to ethnographer István Györffy, a kunhalom is "a cone or hemisphere-shaped formation 5–10 m high, 20–50 m in diameter, usually located beside but not in water, and largely a burial site, mound, guard or border mound." There may once have been tens of thousands of kunhaloms in the Alföld, but many have been destroyed (currently around six thousand remain). Most kunhaloms protected by law are also harmed by agricultural cultivation, though they have cultural-historical, landscape, and botanical values. They may be refuges for ancient plant associations unless they have been plowed over.

A few minutes' walk from the plowed kunhalom, the road passes a ditch known on maps as Csörsz-Árok (Devil's Ditch). Csörsz-Árok is the largest, oldest, and most mysterious earthwork military structure of the Carpathian Basin. The approximately 1260 km long system of double, triple, and sometimes quadruple defensive earthworks started from the Danube region, ran across the northern Alföld, turned south near Nyíregyháza, traversed the eastern Alföld, and ended at the Danube in present-day Serbia. Researchers have long puzzled over who and when built this vast defense system enclosing 60–65 thousand km2 of the Alföld. The most probable theory attributes it to the Sarmatians living in the Alföld in the 4th century AD under Roman supervision. Currently, a drainage canal runs along the former ditch near Körösladány – this is unfortunately a typical "afterlife" of Csörsz-Árok in this area.

Körösladány – Vésztő

After leaving the ancient earthworks, our route reaches the town of Körösladány. We walk parallel to the railway tracks along Vasút Street, then cross them to find ourselves at the railway station. The official Alföld Blue Trail stamp is on the wall of the duty office. From here, our path heads south, passing through the center of Körösladány with its shady parks and monuments. Among these, it is worth detouring to the Wenckheim-Merán Castle, a classicizing building still operating as a school. It is also appropriate to recall Körösladány's famous native, Lajos Tüköry (1830–1860), who distinguished himself in the 1848–1849 revolution and war of independence, the Crimean War, and even in Giuseppe Garibaldi's Italian army. After passing the monumental Reformed Church, we soon cross the Sebes-Körös bridge and turn northeast to the river dam. After about 5 km on the dam, it is worth taking a break and walking down to the riverbank, where we can observe the confluence of the Sebes-Körös and Berettyó rivers. Another approximately 5 km along the dam takes us to the state road between Szeghalom and Vésztő, near Vidratanya. The stamp can be found on the wall next to the restaurant's main entrance and opposite it at the entrance of the Fokközi Protection Center.

Walking further on the road towards Vésztő, our K marking soon turns right onto a dirt road. Following the waters of the Holt-Sebes-Körös through forests and saline pastures, we walk about 11 km until we reach the Körös–Maros National Park Directorate and one of the most significant archaeological exhibitions of the entire Tiszántúl, the Vésztő–Mágor Historical Memorial Site. Protected since 1987, Mágor-puszta is located at the meeting point of the Körös plain and the Kis-Sárrét region. Overlooking the former Sebes-Körös beds and floodplains is the double Mágori hill, 9 m high, one of the largest and most important Neolithic–Bronze Age settlement mounds (tellen) in the Carpathian Basin.

The flood-free river dike area surrounded by the former Sebes-Körös river and its abandoned riverbeds already attracted settlements in the Körös region millennia ago. The settlement mound, 93.9 m above sea level and measuring 250 x 170 m, formed a cultural layer about 700 cm thick, divided into nine construction periods, composed of debris and household waste from Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age populations living here over millennia. Between 1986 and 1988, archaeologists created a 5 x 25 m profile inside the artificially elevated mound, preserving onsite settlement and cemetery parts from Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age. This unique profile can be viewed through a roofed and walled room with a door.

The memorial site offers more than the interior of the ancient mound. Between 1970 and almost a decade afterwards, Irén Juhász and her team conducted excavations that fully uncovered the remains of the former Csolt clan monastery. The walls were conserved between 1979 and 1982. The Wenckheim cellar was adapted for museological purposes beginning in 1980 and was inaugurated together with the ruins on August 25, 1982. The landscaped historical memorial site also features a Neolithic dwelling house, the Pákász farm, and a statue group of folk writers. The official Alföld Blue Trail stamp is located at the shepherds' lodging, fixed to the wall beside the entrance.

After the memorial site, another approximately 5 km hike awaits us to the charming and peaceful Békés county town of Vésztő, where the section ends and the stamp can be found at the town’s railway station.