Balatonkenesei Tátorjános

The Balatonkenesei Tátorjános nature reserve is a protected area in Balatonkenes, Veszprém County. It takes its name from the native tátorján found here.

Formation, surface features

The Balatonkenesei high shore (the so‑called “chalk shore”) is, contrary to popular belief, not built of chalk but of various (silty‑sandy) lake sediments. Regular horizontal layers were deposited in the Pannonian Lake about 10 million years ago. Chalk is found only at the top of the layer sequence. The 1–2 m thick cover material of the lake sediments was blown here during the Ice Age by winds mainly from the edge of the ice sheet covering Northern Europe and from the Transdanubian Central Mountains. Because of its surface position, this soil‑forming sediment gave rise to the characteristic, essentially calciphilous vegetation.

The collapse is of erosive origin: the shore composed of loose sediments was washed under by the previously unregulated wave action of Lake Balaton. The steep shore side was continuously eroded as the sediments broke away in the form of slumps and collapses. The fallen slump temporarily supported the wall, but after the lake’s wave action again undermined the support, the process repeated over and over until artificial shore protection halted it. In the well‑draining layers, groundwater moving toward the lake further reduces the wall’s stability.

History

It was established in 1971 on Soós Hill. The Balaton Uplands National Park Directorate supervises it; a separate citizen guard watches over the area in the town.

Since 1927 an obelisk erected in memory of the poet Lajos Soós stands here. Around 2005 a lookout tower was also built here.

High shore

On the steep shore side special chalk‑wall vegetation lives. Here nests our most splendid, tropical‑evoking bird, the swallow that feeds on beetles, the dragonfly that consumes beetles, and our brown‑feathered swallow, the shore swallow.

Plateau

On the plateau spreading across the top of the high shore, special herbaceous plant communities have settled. The tátorján, a relic species that gives the area its name, is a remnant of the Ice Age chalk‑steppe patches.