Vértes TK - Duna-Ipoly NP (sitios de interés)
Descripción del sitio
| Vértes Landscape Protection Area Territory of the protected area: 15 608 hectares, of which 1 212 hectares are under increased protection. Location: Territory of Vértes mountains. Visitors: The area can be freely visited but the visiting of highly protected parts, Haraszt mountain, Pátrácos beechwood, Fáni valley is of limited access, subject to permit. Management: Directorate of Danube–Ipoly National Park Though Vértes, even in Hungary, does not belong to the group of high mountains, not even its highest point reaches five hundred metres, still no one would call it a hill. One of its reasons is that the inselberg of Vértes between the Móri basine and the Tata–Váli basine, with its short foot steeply rising above its surroundings (it is especially striking if arriving from the direction of Székesfehérvár or Érd). Another reason is that the dolomite and lime stone based mountain, rich in bauxite, has a true variety of forms giving the impression of a high mountain; as it often is with limestone mountains, especially on its southern part, narrow, deep valleys, steep hillsides, rocky fractures, cliff faces, cold, humid dark canyons are wedged between the crossing mountain crests with often sharp ridges. There are almost forty caves in the territory of the mountain, the biggest of them is the Báracházi cave outside Csákvár.
As a result of this the flora of Vértes is uniquely varied: smoke tree karst scrub-groves cover the southern exposed, dry, quickly warming up slopes. The smoke tree association in full red bloom at the end of summer finds its parallel only on the Balaton Uplands. Valuable, almost intact dolomite rock lawn and slope meadows with rock grass stretch on the bare southern sides. The Mediterranean character of the sunny areas is proved by the fact that it is only here in Hungary where Mediterranean oriental hornbeam (Carpinus orientalis), a reminder of the times before the ice age, survived (e.g. on the Haraszt hill, which is open for visitors to a limited extent). The burning bush, lesser butterfly-orchid and the milkwort (Polygama amara) are among the most beautiful plants of the territory. Canyon grove communities live in the cool, shady canyons, often hiding relict species from as early as the ice age for example the auricula. The humid, cool area of the strictly protected Fáni valley is especially interesting, because the psychrophilous beech lives together with not only species characteristic of the subalpine flora such as the hart's-tongue fern or the kidney-vetch sp. (Anthyllis calcicola), but with the definitely thermophile manna ash (flowering ash). The warmer parts of hillsides are covered with mixed white oaks, the cooler parts are covered with oaks mixed with hornbeam while the northern sides with beeches and mixed beech woods, with pink sp. and wood laurel (Daphne laureola) scattered among them (the most beautiful stand is the strictly protected beech wood at Pátrácos). It is a frequent sight that thermophile dry lawn stretches on the top of certain ridges with bindweed and wormwood sp. (Artemisia alba), but at the foot of the hill characteristic plant species of marshy meadows live. The marsh world of the Csíkvarsa meadow at the foot of the mountain, which is one of the last remnants of the extensive marsh around the foot of the mountain, is the favoured habitat of waterfowl: black-tailed godwit, the common sandpiper, lapwing live here. It rarely occurs that a lower species is mentioned among the most exciting creatures of a territory, but this is the case here: the six-seven centimetre long beautiful Mediterranean centipede called megarian banded centipede lives in the southern part of Vértes, its venom may cause long lasting painful inflammation. Perhaps the most valuable but undisputedly most spectacular members of the fauna of the mountain are the birds. The imperial eagle, the saker falcon and the hobby, the honey buzzard and the short-toed eagle still regularly nest in Vértes and the otherwise rare rock thrush, black woodpecker also hatch here. The relics of cultural history in Vértes are also valuable. Once the property of the Csák family the territory was a royal hunting ground, that is how king Matthias caught sight of the beautiful girl while he was "in a long pensive stand" at least according to the poem by Vörösmarty titled Beautiful Ilonka. The most famous sights of the mountain are the forts and ruins of a fortresses: Csókak? from the 12th century, Oroszlán-k?, Vitányvár or Gesztes. The village of Vérteskozma was populated at the beginning of the 18th century in a characteristic comb shaped structure; it was loosing its population in the past decades but it has reborn as a resort village. The new owners restored the original beauty of the village. Another memorable sight is the twelve identical hermit cottages at Majkpuszta with the nearby palace and church tower (formerly occupied by Camaldolese monks). The abandoned bauxite mine near Gánt may be mentioned as a relic of industrial history, it is also worth visiting for its specific esthetics or dubious beauty since the Martian landscape may serve as a starting point for far reaching contemplation. http://www.foek.hu/zsibongo/termve/tk/angtk/vertes.htm |
