Lake Balaton-biggest Lake in Europe

Transdanubia, which is situated to the left of the river Danube, has been home to human settlements since times immemoriaL Since the earliest times, too, civili­zations have preserved and passed on their traditions to posterity. Celts lived here in early historical times.
The memory of their settlements is pre­served by exquisite pieces of ironwork, fine earthenware dishes and statues. Ruins of the Roman Age are still being unearthed at construction sites all over Transdanubia, once the Roman pro­vince of Pannonia. The Roman heri­tage did not disappear completely in the turbulent period of the Great Migrations; the Goths, Longobards, Gepids, Avars, Franks, and Slavs pre­served and passed on a great deal of their culture amidst the turmoil of war.

The flourishing vineyards along Lake Balaton were planted under the reign of Emperor Claudius

I, and their culti­vation was continued by the various peoples succeeding each other in the area.
The Magyars' adherence to tra­dition was so strong that even at the beginning of the twentieth century in the flourishing vineyards of the Bala­ton region many Hungarian growers pruned vine stocks with characteristi­cally Roman-shaped pruning knives. Near the small town of Tac, near Lake Balaton, archaeologists have unearthed the Roman town of Gorsium. Traces of several buildings and streets of the for­mer town, which had a population 0 8,000, can still be seen on the spot while an open air museum has beer stocked with Roman Age statue, carvings, tombstones and column,

It is characteristic feature of the land­scape of the former Roman province of Pannonia that it is composed 0: small units characteristic only of the area in which they are found. The are2 stretching to the north of the lake especially is characterized by the fact that each village has its own colours the jugs are decorated in a different way by the potters, and local memories are attached to the unique folk tales. The ancient symbol, the disc of the sun, is, carved a little differently on the gates of the houses. This is a region where the modem tendency towards uniformity has not been able to wipe out the vestiges of olden times altogether.


Journey from Budapest

If we begin our journey from Buda­pest, the capital of Hungary, about 20 km. from the city we

come to the town of Martollvasar, where the fonner town house of the Brunswick counts, built in 1775 though later converted in the English neo-gothic style, houses the Beethoven Museum. Beethoven, a friend of Count Ferenc Brunswick, was a guest several times, and tradition has it that some of his works, including the Appassionata and the Moonlight Sonata, were inspired by his stay at Martonvasar. It is whispered that the "immortal beloved" for whom the com­poser wrote his touching love letters was no other than one of the young Brunswick countesses. Today in the summer the grounds draw large crowds for the yearly Beethoven concerts. After Martonvasar, the road leads toward Lake Velence, whose shores are dotted with small summer homes and fishing huts, and its waters are covered with thick reeds. The lake, which is a fisherman's paradise, is also known for its birds.


Szekesfehervar

About 60 km. from the capital we come to the town of Szekesfehervar. Known as Alba Regia in

Roman times, Szekesfehervar is the oldest city in Hungary. Its history goes back to pre­Christian times. After the Magyars sett­led down in the area, one of the seven chieftains, Prince Arpad, put up camp here. The town itself was founded around 972A.D. by Geza, who became King (St.) Stephen's father. King Stephen built a wall around Szekes­fehervar and vested it with privileges that served as models for the other Hungarian towns in the centuries to come. King Stephen also had a palace and a cathedral built here, but the town remained a royal seat only for a short time, because the Court first moved to Esztergom, then subsequently to Buda. For a long time, however, Szekes­fehervar remained the scene of the coronations and burials of the kings of Hungary.

Unfortunately, the magnificent architectural creations of the Arpad period were all destroyed during the Turkish occupation of Hungary. Only the pillars, capitals and carvings loca­ted in an outdoor museum in the heart of the town bear witness to the one­time coronation cathedraL Even less has survived from the former royal palace. However, a section of Prince Geza's royal dwelling was recently uncovered at a construction site. The unearthed walls were preserved in their original place. Furthermore, for some reason the Turks spared a graceful Gothic building of medieval Szekes­fehervar, Saint Anne's Chapel.

Inside we find painted walls from the Turkish period, and in front stands the stone statue of the fifteenth-century Huma­nist priest, Domonkos Kalmancsehi, an enthusiastic patron of the arts who commissioned an exquisite codex that has luckily been preserved amidst centuries of turmoil.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Szekesfehemlr was rebuilt in the baroque style, which was later eclipsed by the popularity of the roco­co, and still later, the neo-classical style. The old town core still preserves something of the baroque atmosphere. The Bishop's Palace, built between 1790 and 1801, for example, still stands. Its library has many valuable codices and nearly 500 incunabula ­4,000 nold volumes in all. The area around the inner town core is characte­rized by nondescript prefab housing. Beyond these there are industrial plants. The city can also be reached from the north-eastern tip of the Bala­ton in less than half an hour.

Balaton largest freshwater lake in Europe

Searching for Hungary on a map of Europe, the eye is inevitably drawn to the blue patch that is

Lake Balaton, the Central-Europe's largest freshwater lake covering an area of 600 square km. It would be impossible to determine the full influence the lake exerts over the lives and thoughts of the people of Hungary. It is as though the nostalgic feelings and expectations of an entire country - which, one might add, is land-locked - had fallen under the spell of this huge expanse of water, which the locals call "the Hungariansea", Indeed, its unique flora, fauna, and micro-climate make the lake more than the sum of its parts. It is as though some secret inspiration had been flowing from the lake for over a thousand years.

Balaton history

Lake Balaton has been a source of inspiration for nearly every branch of the arts, from the earliest times to the present. Some remarkable remnants of Hungarian Romanesque and gothic architecture can still be found in its environs. In the period following the foundation of Hungary, traditionally in 1001 A.D, when the king and Christianity were victorious in their struggle against tribal aristo­cracy and pagan religion, parochial villages were established in the Balaton area and, fortunately for posterity. a few stone temples on the hills and in remote valleys survived the destruction that befell most Hungarian historical monuments during the Mongol inva­sion and the Turkish occupation.

The authentically restored church at Fels6• ors near Balatonalmadi is one of the most beautiful examples of architecture from Arpadian times. The abbey church in Tihany, situated near the tip of the Tihany peninsula reaching into the waters of the lake, had at one time been part of the Benedictine abbey founded by King Andrew I in 1055 A.D. Today, only the crypt remains of the ancient structure. The abbey is also well known in Hungary because its deed of foundation contains the first written record of the Hunga­rian language. Though it was compo­sed in Latin, the deed contains nearly one-hundred recognizable Hungarian words. Following the Mongol invasion, a castle fortified by a palisade was built around the abbey, and although the fortress was far below the standards of the age, its defenders put up a successful fight against the renewed Ottoman sieges of one hundred and fifty years.

Tihany

The castle was destroyed only in the early eighteenth century when, following the Kuruc War of

Independence, the imperial administra­tion ordered that every Hungarian fortress be blown up. The castle of Tihany met the same fate, and its stones were subsequently used in the con­struction of the baroque church and monastery adjacent to it, which house­a museum today. Only the crypt survi­ved in its original fonn; here, amon~ the massive Romanesque columns lie the body of the founder, King Andre I. Beyond the church there are a fell thatched cottages in the village - the relics of old peasant homes. Thanks to its unique indigenous plants and ani­mals as well as geyser cones, witnesse to volcanic activity, the peninsula itset has been declared a nature conserva­tion area. Balatonfiired

The holiday resort of Balatonfiired to the east of Tihany, has a neo­classical ambiance, thanks to the pre­vailing style of architecture of the earl: nineteenth-century. Life at this once elegant Balaton resort was marked b: animated discourse and well-attendee balls, where the gentlemen wore frogged "Attilas", or Hungarian jackets, and ladies danced in bodices embroi­dered with Hungarian folk motifs. Today, Balatonftired owes its fame partly to the presence of effervescent thermal waters which have made it a well-known health resort, while its excellent beach and its harbor for sailing boats provides splendid oppor­tunities for bathing, sports, and enter­tainment. In fact, this duality still characterizes Balatonfiired today. Its Hospital for Cardiology is an interna­tionally renowned institution where writers and artists, from Rabindranath Tagore to Quasimodo and other public figures, have sought cure.

The 300 to 400 meter elevations along the northern shores of the lake were formed in the course of volcanic activity in one of the early periods of geo-history. One does not have to be a geologist to discover, while roaming the picturesque highlands of the Bala• ton region, the hollow cavities of the original craters, and the thousands 01 stone fragments ejected from the volcano. On the slopes of the Badacsony Hill and Szentgyorgy Hill rise the famous "basalt organs" (columns 01 basalt resembling organ pipes) of solid lava.

They are surrounded on all sides by flourishing vineyards which have withstood the extremities of the weather and have survived all devasta­tion and destruction for over two housand years. The green of the vineyards is interspersed with the reddish purple earth tinted by rich mineral deposits. The colours combine to pre­sent an almost surrealistic image. The blue of the lake, the golden rays of the sun, the green of the vegetation, and the reddish-purple of the soil all contribute to this vision of loveliness. Still, there is a quality that brings everything down to earth and suggests the ultimate indivisibility of man and nature.

Szigliget


As we travel further west along the northern shore of the lake, we come to the town of Szigliget. The hills thaJ gird the town owe their origin to volca­nic activity. Known for its exquisite beauty, Szigliget had taken shape centuries earlier by the foot of the castle, which now lies in ruins, bUl offers a breathtaking view of the lake below. Built in the thirteenth century the castle was blown up on imperial orders, thus suffering the fate of all the fortified castles in Hungary.


Keszthely


Situated at the north western tip of the Balaton lies the popular town ( Keszthely, the largest settlement of tt lake region. Having sprung up at tu junction of ancient roads, it is remote the oldest and most time honour bathing places, though today most visitors like roaming its streets for the sake of the atmosphere and archi­tecture. Keszthely began to attract the intellectual elite of the age in the second half of the eighteenth century, when Count Gyorgy Festetics, a member of the powerful aristocratic family who owned the town, disregarded the traditional loyalties of his Church and family and founded a school for agriculture in 1797. (The Georgikon later became one of Europe's leading agri­cultural schools). He also organized the annual Helicon festivities each spring with the participation of the leading lights of Hungarian arts, letters, and the sciences. Much of this atmosphere still lingers in Keszthely today. For example, the library founded by Feste­tics aud stocked with old codices, incu­nabula, aud the rich Balaton collection, is still open today, while the castle's music hall and courtyard are used for summer concerts. In the town park there are unique species of trees that are over one-hundred years old, while all around there are baroque houses.

The building with the vaulted and arcaded courtyard was the birthplace of Ka­roly Goldmark, the composer of "The Queen of Sheba" and other operas. In addition, the former Georgikon School of agriculture has developed into a uni­versity for agricultural sciences. About six kilometres from Keszt­hely lies Heviz, one of the country's largest and best known health resorts. It owes its popularity to the 3.5 hectare thermal lake, the largest of its kind in Europe. The lake is 36.5 meters in depth; the spring situated in a cone shaped cavity gives about 86 million litres of water a day. The temperature of the lake is 33° to 34°C in summer and 26°to 28°C in winter.


The southern shores of Lake Balaton



The bottom of the lake is covered with peat moss several meters deep, which is used for therapeutic purposes. The town has several spas. A noteworthy historical monument near Hevfz is the Roma­nesque church of Egregy, dating from the first half of the thirteenth century. The southern shores of Lake Balaton, known for its long stretches of sandy beach, are bordered by flat country. The water is shallow and deepens only gradually, so that it is quite safe for children. This sixty km. stretch is virtually a gigantic family holiday camp whose innumerable bathing resorts follow one another in what appears to be an endless chain. The largest settlement of the area is the bustling town of SiOfok with its busy harbour, its water-front hotels and its wide range of entertainment facilities. The most distinguished bathing resort is that of BalatonfOldvar, the boating center of the Balaton, and the final stop of the Annual Blue Ribbon race. Not far from here, rising on the top of the vine covered Koroshegy, there is a beautiful fifteenth-century gothic church in which concerts are held ~I. the summer. Beyond the rows of at the bathing resort of Balatonbogla spreads a large vine growing and covering Beyond Balatonboghla, as we advance to the west, there are several other bathing resorts before the lake an end. But the lake is followed byof the most interesting conservation areas of the country, the Little Balaton, where patches of reed and alternate with open waters aboundin water lilies. This area covers 1,400 hectares (3,459 acres).surface, an observation post has been constructed on one of the islands, from which botanists and ornithologists have the opportunity to study the vege­tation and animal life of this unique marshland.

Northern shore of Lake Balaton



Along the northern shore of Lake Balaton rises the mountainous region known as the Bakony. Its southern reaches, which stretch down to the lake, form the Uplands. The Bakony is not merely a part of the country, a geographically unified range of mountains; thanks to its unique folk lore, its architecture, the structure of its villages and the life-style and customs of its inhabitants, it makes for a small world of its own. Even today, the word Bakony conjures up a stretch of impe­netrable mountain woods which at one time stretched far towards the north west, to the hills of the Kisalfbld, or Little Plain. This image of the pathless wilderness is further colored by tales of fonner betyars, or wayward highway­men and outlaws, who made it their haunt. In the national imagination these men, also called "the poor lads", stole from the rich and gave to the poor, though after a time, their ill luck or treachery would find them on the gallows. In fact, the heroes of such legends were mostly peasants evading conscription or fleeing the wrath of some lord against whom they had transgressed. In the centuries following the Magyar Conquest in the late ninth century A.D., the fertile, forest -clad valleys of the Bakony also became a cultural center of sorts with a number of "headquarters". One of these was Zire, where a Cistercian abbey was founded in 1182 A.D., while the Benedictine abbey of Bakonybel was founded in 1018 A.D. by King (St.) Stephen. The former played an important role in the development of agriculture, the latter in the establishment of the handicraft industry. Today, the city of Zirc draws visitors because of its ancient buildings and beautiful arboretum. Not far from Zirc is situated the ruins of the thirteenth-century castle of Csesznek. Built atop what is known as Castle Hill, it was put up in the gothic style.

Nagyvllzsony


The medieval castle in the town of Nagyvllzsony is one of the most interesting historical sites of the region. During the campaigns against the Turks, it was an important Hungarian outpost. The gothic chapel of the donjon contains the red marble tomb of Pal Kinizsi, celebrated for slowing down the imminent Turkish onslaught, which ended in a hundred and fifty years of Turkish occupation. There is also an exhibition of Roman and gothic sculpture, most of which comes from the Pauline monastery. Kinizsi was also the founder of the nearby gothic Pauline monastery and church in 1483. Even though it is now in ruins, the monastery still draws many tourists to the site.

Tapolca


The town of Tapolca, which has one of the most charming townscapes in Transdanubia, is situated on the northern edge of the Tapoica Basin of the Bakony Mountains. Its major tourist attraction is the Cave Pond (Tavasbarlang), which can also be accessed by boat. In the vicinity of Gyulakeszi, situated to the south-east of Tapoica, on top of Csobanc Hill, lie the ruins of the castle of Csobanc. Built in the thirteenth century, along with Nagyvazsony, it was one of the major outposts of northern Transda­nubia during Turkish times. Still, the town that draws the most tourists to the part of the Bakony, and which is well worth a visit, is the ancient settlement of Siimeg. Of its many historical monuments, the best knows is the fresco of the Parish Church, the work of the great eighteenth-century painter Franz An­ton Maulbertsch. The eighteenth-cen­tury baroque Franciscan Church and the castle of Siimeg with its thirteenth century watch tower, situated at the southern end of the castle, are also important historical monuments.

Veszpnem


The capital of the Bakony region, offers an interesting combina­tion of old and new. In the middle of the town, at the top of a steep cliff, is the Castle District with the early-gothic Gisela Chapel, one of the oldest relics of medieval architecture in the country. The chapel was originally commissioned by Queen Gisela, the wife of King (St.) Stephen. However, its present shape dates from the thirteenth century. The frescoes depicting the apostles also date from that time. The Episcopal Palace, which rises in the middle of the Castle District, is the work of the out­standing baroque architect Jakab Fell­ner. The watch tower combines the stylistic features of several centuries. Its foundation is from medieval times, its first floor and balcony are from the baroque age, and its upper half is from the early nineteenth century. The baroque atmosphere of the old town continues beyond the castle district, but then the visitor suddenly finds himself in another Veszprem, the town of today there is ample evidence that a visit to the Balaton should not be restricted to bathing, ewn though the silky water with its moderate temperature, well suited to Swimming. Are hard to resist, as is the water skiing and sailing on the lake. It is well worth visiting the envi­rons of the lake as well. Because this beautJful region enchants one and all with its relics of the ancient past.