Szigliget

Szigliget is the Pearl of Lake Balaton. There are few other places at Lake Balaton where the romantic landscape involves so many relics of the past.

The castle hill of Szigliget topped by a 730 year old catle high on its rocks is surrounded with the cones of extinct volcanoes producing tasty wines as well as with forests and whispering reeds and the Billowy Balaton itself.

The Castle was built by the Abbey of Pannonhalma in 1962 and it has changed its commanders int he course of history several times. The family Lengyel took it in property the second time in 1563. It was defended by Palonai Magyar Bálint against the Turks, and it has never gone under Turkish rule. It fell, hawever, victim to imperial revenge after the Kuruts war of Independence: Emperor Lipót ordered itt o be blown up. The ruins have been deteriorating for centuries. To protect its substance as well as to explore, a fund was started in 1991.

The village was once encircled by water. There are records of its being an island (i.e. Sziget) in 1260. and people from the neighbourhood still call itt hat way. A population of 1100 is involved in gowing vince as well as gardening and tourism. The 242 meter high castle hill commands a fine view with craftspeople’s workshops below.

Visitors are welcomed by a confectionery as well as an art gellery and anexhibition hall. The main square houses the one-time Eszterházy residence, now a rest-home for writers. Its 12-acre park is an arboretum under protection. Tapolca brook runs bubbling in its far ends. The square makes home for the offices of the mayor and the posta s well as for the doctor’s consulting room.
Walking along Kossuth street towards the beach, you can find a supermarket beside the school, the library and the foot as well as handball fields. Turning from Kossuth street to the left int he streets Hóvirág and Szabadság, then through the Majális Hill, one of the nicest part of Szigliget, you can walk to the lido and, in a roundabout way, through the Belső Hill to the part.

The sand-beach and eating-houses make the lido of Szigliget especially popular among families with little children. You are just opposite to the Óvár („Old Castle”) hillside called Királyné szoknyája („Queen’s Skirt”) while, several hundred meters on, the Aranykagyló (Goldshell) is an other awe-inspiring sight.

Liners to all corners of the Lake run to time from the port neighbouring a landing-place for sailboats and some tennis courts of the local club waiting for tennis fans. You can walk ont o Réhely where the foundations of a XIIIth century church and the so-calles Avasi or Csonka („Ruined”) tower are sights to be seen, too.

Turn to right and you can get to Badacsonytördemic or back to the old village again. Getting in way, several restaurants provide tired and hungary-thirsty tourists with Hungarian-style meal as well as fiery wine.