Vértesi Tájvédelmi Körzet

The area of the Vértesi Landscape Protection Area is 15 608 hectares, of which 1 212 hectares are intensively protected. The Landscape Protection Area falls under the Directorate of the Danube–Ipoly National Park.

Location

The protection area is located in the Vértes region, which rises steeply with a short ridge between the Móri trench and the Tata–Váli trench above its surroundings. The purpose of declaring it protected was to preserve the remaining natural values and scenic beauty of the Vértes Mountains in the heavily industrialized area bounded by Székesfehérvár, Mór, Oroszlány, and Tatabánya.

Characteristics

The southern side of the Vértes is built of dolomite bedrock, but in the northern Vértes limestone bedrock of the Dachstein type is also found in places. With the degradation and sheet-like fracturing of the dolomite surface, steep drops, rock walls, eagle cliffs, ravines, and narrow gorge valleys have formed, which give the Vértes a wild, romantic appearance despite its relatively low altitude above sea level. As a result of karstification, caves have developed in the mountains, the most famous of which is the Csákvári Cave.

Flora and Fauna

The ridges converging from the four cardinal directions, together with the valleys, steep slopes, inner gorges, and small basins, create very large microclimatic variations. Consequently, the vegetation of the Vértes is unusually diverse: the dry, quickly warming, often hot climate of the south‑exposed sides is covered with dwarf‑pine karst shrub forests. On the treeless southern slopes, valuable, almost natural‑state dolomite rock‑grasslands and rocky herbaceous slope terraces extend. The Mediterranean character of the sunny areas is evidenced by the presence of the Mediterranean eastern cypress, a relic from pre‑glacial times. Among the most beautiful plants of the area are the great thousand‑year‑grass, the two‑leaf starflower, and the meadow grass.

In the cool, shady gorges live gorge-forest associations, often hiding even Ice Age relic species – such as the bear‑ear gentian. The strictly protected Fáni Valley’s humid, cool area is especially interesting because the cold‑loving beech forest, besides the characteristic sub‑Alpine flora species – such as the alpine fern or the mountain harebell – coexists with the distinctly warmth‑requiring flowering alpine rose. The warmer parts of the hillsides are oak‑ash mixtures, the cooler areas are hornbeam‑oak forests, while the northern sides are covered by beech, beech‑oak mixed forests, with Hungarian carnation and bay lion.

The most valuable, and certainly the most spectacular, members of the mountain’s fauna are the birds. In the Vértes the imperial eagle, the steppe eagle and the lesser spotted eagle, the buzzard and the snake eagle still regularly nest, and the rare rock thrush and black woodpecker also breed in the area. The Csíkvarsai Meadow at the foot of the mountain, with its marshy, swampy world, is a favored habitat of water birds: great crested grebe, shielded cormorant, and bittern live on its territory. Also in the southern part of the Vértes lives the “öves szkolopendra”, a roughly six‑to‑seven‑centimetre, hundred‑legged creature, whose venom can cause a prolonged, painful inflammation.

Cultural values

The most notable monuments of the mountain are the castles and castle ruins: the 12th‑century Csókakő Castle, the Lion‑Stone, Vitány Castle or Gesztes Castle. Vérteskozma, a village with a characteristic comb‑shaped layout settled in the early 18th century, has slowly depopulated in recent decades, but has recently revived as a resort village. Also unforgettable is the sight of the seventeen identical hermit cabins visible at Majkpuszta, in which once lived Camaldolese monks.

As an industrial‑historical monument it can also be mentioned, but it is worth visiting because of its unique appearance, the abandoned bauxite mine near Gánt.