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Tihany, the 950 years old monastery

© Haragos Pal

In this summer I have visited the Balaton region, Hungary. I spent a week at Balatonboglar, the little town in the southern shore of Lake Balaton (the largest Hungarian lake). The weather was not good in this summer, so we could made some excursion around the lake. We visited the Tapolca Cave, Tihany and Badacsony. In last year I wrote an article about Lake Balaton and the most important sightseeing in its region ( http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/9533... ) but now I would like to show you my new impressions about the Tihany Peninsula.

We arrived to Tihany by a ferryboat, which connects the southern shore to the northern one. There is the narrowest (about one and a half kilometre) and the deepest (about 11 metre) the lake. There is regular ferryboat service from spring to the end of autumn.

The first impression about Tihany is the hilly peninsula with Tihany abbey on it, which is visible from maybe all part of Lake Balaton. Tourists who spend their spare time at the lake feel attraction to visit Tihany. They can reach it by coach, boat and ferryboat.

First of all we visited the old monastery. In this year was the 950th anniversary of its establishment. King András I, who later was buried here in the monastery in 1060, gave an estate to the Benedict order in 1055. This old manuscript is very interesting because it contains one of the first written Hungarian text. "FEHERUUARU REA MENEH HODU UTU REA" (This means: up to the main military road to Fehervar). The ancient writer could not translate exactly the Hungarian expression to Latin language, so he wrote it with ancient Hungarian words. Next to the monastery is the old convent. There is an exhibition about the history of the abbey and a memorial of the last Hungarian king Károly IV.

Interesting thing is that the Tihany peninsula has two small lakes the Belsõ-tó (Inner) and Külsõ-tó (Outer). Around lakes there are hills covered with forest and vineries.

Some months ago I saw a report on the TV about Tihany and its fantastic natural places. The most interesting thing was the so called Gold House. It is a hill which was made by the work of an ancient geyser. It is the largest one (beside the other hundred geyser hills) in Tihany peninsula and it is covered with yellowish lichen. In sunset the hill has gold bright. We visited the Gold House. Its just 35-45 minutes walk from the village. From the top of the hill there is a nice view to the old village and the Inner Lake and in the background Lake Balaton.

Tihany

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