Magas-bakonyi Tájvédelmi Körzet

The area of the Magas-bakonyi Landscape Protection Area is 8 753 hectares, of which 478 hectares are intensively protected. The landscape protection area falls under the administration of the Balaton Uplands National Park Directorate.

Location

The area of the protection zone extends west from Zir to the line bounded by Bakonykoppány, Farkasgyepű, and Pénzesgyőr. The characteristic, beech‑covered region of the Transdanubian Central Mountains was placed under protection in 1991. Protective legislation: Decree No. 4/1991 of the Minister of Environment and Regional Development (III. 22.) KTM on the establishment of the Magas-bakonyi Landscape Protection Area. The nature protection was also justified by the relative untouchedness of the area and the almost complete originality of the forests covering 84 % of its extent.

Characteristics

The region is formed by ridges rising about one hundred meters from plateaus with an average height of 300–400 meters, interspersed with smaller and larger basins and deep gorge valleys. As a result of geological movements of varying intensity, a denser network of valleys, gorges, and sharper ridges developed east of the Gerence stream valley, while to the east, diverse wide mountain ridges, and gentle slopes formed with scree fields and water sinks. In the area dissected by valleys, ditches, and smaller and larger gorges, more than thirty caves are found. The most notable are the nearly vertical, twenty‑meter‑deep Ördöglik opening with a trumpet shape, and the Small and Large Pénzlik. Particularly interesting is the Odvas‑kői cave surrounded by bandit legends, whose features were already utilized by prehistoric people, as testified by Stone Age finds. A similarly valuable phenomenon is the scree field spreading south of the Szárazgerence valley. In the Szömörke valley a limestone stair is visible, through which the water of the Judit spring flows continuously, creating a spectacle similar to the Bükk Szalajka waterfall. One of the most beautiful parts of the landscape is the gorge‑like Gerence valley formed by the Gerence stream, and the Kerteskői gorge, with smaller caves in the valley rock walls.

Among the area’s especially protected values are

the Szentgáli Tisztavíz spring,

the Bakonybél Social Home park, as well as Somogyhegy, Szömörke Valley and Tisztavíz Valley,

Iharkút (Bakonyjákó),

Kopaszhegy and Öreg-Szarvad-árok (Bakonyszücs),

Vörös János Séd Valley (Ugod)

Flora and Fauna

The varied terrain and the undisturbed nature have resulted in diverse and valuable plant associations. The climate of the High Bakony favours the development of mountain vegetation: this area is one of the coldest and wettest parts of the country, yet it has a high number of sunny hours. The highest parts of the range are covered by mountain beech forests (e.g., the primeval beech forests in the Black Séd Valley) and mixed beech forests with high spruce, mountain fir and pine. The lower part of the beech belt becomes the dominant forest type of the High Bakony, developing into a beech‑spruce‑fir‑juniper‑hornbeam association. Descending further, beech‑oak forests are found, with an understory of woodruff, turban lily, and bird’s‑nest orchid. The warmer, mainly southern slopes are covered by mixed oak‑hornbeam forests with hazel and dogwood.

In the deep, dark, humid gorge valleys characteristic gorge‑forest associations live, their understory characterised by wood fern, moon violet, and mountain turban lily. The streams of the valleys are often accompanied on the lower, widening sections by small to larger alder and willow thickets, with Siberian larch, woolly willow, and flesh‑coloured dogwood. The treeless areas are covered by open dolomite rock cliffs, with barren rock‑rose and dwarf pine, and sun‑flower.

Although the fauna of the Bakony streams was once fairly rich, today, due to the influx of untreated sewage from the villages, valuable species are scarcely found in them, perhaps only in the upper parts where the brook trout still lives, the spined loach and rarely also the stone crab can be found. In the alder and meadow areas, beyond the forest and the goat's-beak, both native wild boar species, the yellow‑haired and the red‑haired, are present, and the Alpine marmot is also native. The bird life of the area is also rich and valuable. In the extensive, high‑lying, little‑disturbed beech forests nest the black stork, the lesser spotted eagle, the golden eagle, the bee‑eater, the raven and the white‑backed woodpecker.

Cultural values

Perhaps the most significant piece of the rich cultural heritage of the High Bakony is the Saint Maurice Monastery, founded in 1018. According to tradition, the later Saint Gerard bishop also lived here as a hermit for a long time, near Saint Spring. One piece of evidence of this is the Altar Stone, which some say was once a sacrificial site. Although it lies outside the boundaries of the landscape protection area, the relatively well‑preserved, beautiful Csesznek Castle is definitely worth seeing. Main cultural‑historical monuments in the area: burial mounds (Szászhalom), ancient earth forts, trenches, the Benedictine abbey church of Bakony, the Bakony Social Home for the Elderly (enjoying county protection since 1977), Saint Spring or Hawthorn Spring.

External references

4/1991. (III. 22.) KTM decree on the establishment of the High Bakony Landscape Protection Area, the declaration of the area, treated as a locally significant protected natural value, as of national significance, and the designation of the nature‑conservation manager (Wolters Kluwer legal database)

Website of the Balaton Uplands National Park

Website of the Balaton Uplands National Park – description of the High Bakony Landscape Protection Area