Countryside: Eger - Culture and Wine (Full-Day Private Tour)

Countryside: Eger - Culture and Wine (Full-Day Private Tour)

Eger is a beautiful baroque city located in Northern Hungary and known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings (including the northernmost Turkish minaret) and red wines.
The tour covers a great walking in the downtown where you can visit the second largest cathedral in Hungary. There are 17 churches in the city: e.g. in baroque or in Zopf style.
The Castle of Eger is famous for its successful defense against the 1552 Ottoman invasion. Nowadays it is a protected historic monument.
The city has a lot of sights from the Turkish era, for example the Turkish minaret and the Turkish Bath.

The city and the region is also famous for its wines. "The Valley of the Beautiful Woman" is a part of Eger which has numerous wine cellars and many of them serve tourists with their own wines.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Eger, Eger, Heves County, Northern Hungary

Eger is the county seat of Heves and the second largest city in Northern Hungary (after Miskolc). Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, baroque buildings, the northernmost Ottoman minaret, dishes and red wines. Its population according to the census of 2011 makes it the 19th largest centre of population in Hungary. The town is located on the Eger Stream, on the hills of the Bükk Mountains.

Duration: 5 hours

Stop At: Eger Castle, Var 1, Eger 3300 Hungary

The Eger Castle is a castle in Eger, Hungary. Historically, it is known for repelling the Turkish attack in 1552 during the Siege of Eger.

The first castle was built on the high hill named Várhegy at Felsőtárkány near Eger.

During the Mongol invasion in 1241, this castle was ruined and the bishop of Eger moved it to a rocky hill in the city of Eger. On the hill a new castle was built and it developed rapidly. In 1470 a Gothic palace was built. In 1552, a Turkish army of 35,000-40,000 soldiers attacked the castle which had 2,100-2,300 defenders. The siege failed as the Turks suffered heavy casualties. A total of 1,700 of the defenders survived. After that Turks besieged the castle again in 1596, resulting in a Turkish victory. In 1701 the Austrians exploded half of the castle.

Archaeological excavations only started in 1925 and the castle was used by the army as barracks until 1957.

There are several museums in the castle:
- Dobó István Vármúzeum - this shows the history of the castle,
- Egri Képtár - a painting exhibition,
- Kazamaták - a system of cellars under the castle,
- Panoptikum - a wax museum,
- an ancient vase exhibition,
and several periodic exhibitions.

Duration: 2 hours

Stop At: Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Apostle, Eger, Eger, Pyrker János tér 1, 3300 Hungary

The Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Apostle[1] or more formally Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, St. Michael and the Immaculate Conception (Hungarian: Szent János apostol és evangélista o Szent János apostol és evangélista, Szent Mihály főangyal, Szeplőtelen Fogantatás főszékesegyház bazilika) also called Eger Cathedral is a religious building affiliated with the Catholic Church that functions as lacatedral of the Archdiocese of Eger, is located in the city of Eger,[2] in the European country of Hungary.[3][4]

The cathedral was built between 1831 and 1837 by József Hilda commissioned by Archbishop János László Pyrker.

The cathedral is a basilica with three naves. In the middle between the nave and chancel to the east is the transept. The dome of the cathedral is lavishly decorated and a height of 40 meters. In chorus are the two bell towers. The portal on the eastern porch is designed like a Greek temple. The monumental entrance is decorated with statues of saints: St. Stephen, St. Ladislaus, and Saints Peter and Paul. The facade is supported by Corinthian columns that reaches a height of 17 meters.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Eger, Dobó István tér, 3300 Hungary

Arriving at the square you can see that the square is full of life, milling crowds: it is a popular social place of youngsters, it is where little children can run about, cyclers and rollerskaters can pass the time with their acrobatic shows and also a popular meeting point of lovers. Dobó square is really vivid in summer, at this time you can sense a kind of Mediterranean atmosphere.

The square reconstructed in 2014 is much spacier than the old one was, this way suitable for hosting major events as well. It is referred to as the heart of Eger, since it is really the centre of the town: all the major sights, monuments can be approached conveniently,with a few-minute walk.

The fountain at the beginning of the square provides real refreshment. In the focus of the square can be found a monument dedicated to a most determining historical event of Eger. At the end of the 19th century locals wanted to commemorate the heroic captain of the castle. The task was implemented by Alajos Stróbl sculptor who had made outstanding statues elsewhere: the statue of Saint István on a horse in Buda castle, the statues of Mór Jókai, writer and János Arany, poet. The statue was inaugurated on 18th August 1907. The central element of the group is captain Dobó holding his arm high with a sword in it, on his right an iconic figure of a warrior of Eger and on the other side a woman throwing stone onto the Turks.

While walking you can take a seat, admire the beauty of Baroque architecture, or visit one of the many programmes and events organised in the heart of Eger: if you happen to come here on cold winter evenings you can get warmed up with a mug of mulled wine, in spring Egri Csillag Weekend waits for those interested with music and wine experiences.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Eger minaret, Eger, Knézich Károly u., 3300 Hungary

It is the minaret having survived in the best condition in the country. The tower is 40 meters high and the balcony circling the terrace in on 26 meters high. Up there your breath will be taken by the view, however, it is also due - besides the fantastic panorama - to having overcome 97 high steps of the spiral staircase to get up. Those having movement disability or height fobia perhaps the minaret will give nice memories admiring it rather from outside but those who like challenges it is really worth climbing up the balcony as well!

The history of the minaret built in about 1596 has some peculiarities. Originally a mosque used to belong to it, but it was pulled down in 1841, that is why the tower can be seen like this now. According to a legend the minaret itself once was almost pulled down. When the Turkish occupation was over, the once oppressed locals wanted to demolish the building, as a symbolic closure of the past. It would not have been very spectacular just to pull it down, so they had a more exciting idea, to tumble it down. As the story says they brought 400 oxen to pull it, but in vain, the tower kept standing, not even swayed. Thanks to this failure the minaret can be seen now, however, a bit personalized: if you look at it carefully, you can see that although there is a crescent moon on the top, a cross is standing out of it.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Valley of the Beautiful Woman,Eger, Eger, Almási Pál u. 38, 3300 Hungary

Eger is famous for its delicious wines and historic wine region. It is lesser known that the famous viniculture of Eger was established by Italian and Vallon settlers in the 1200s. According to a legend a handful of Hungarian troops managed to be successful over the thirty times bigger Turkish overpower in 1552 because they drank the blood of the bull deterring this way the Turks - not allowed to drink alcohol anyway. Wine was made already in Eger in the 16th century and later the tax payed for the archdiocese could be payed in wine, too.

It can be said that wine has almost all the time been present in Eger, and nowadays it is better to say that excellent wines can be found in Eger. No.1 venue for tasting wine is Szépasszony-valley (Valley of the Beautiful Woman), where there is friendship, good atmosphere, a real dolce vita.

There is no other settlement in Hungary where there are so many underground tunnels, cellars, like in Eger. It is good to know that these cellars were not made at the same time, with the same purpose. There are cellars that were cut for storing wine, were used for defense purposes, while the buildings of the Baroque city centre were partly built from tuff blocks ectracted from below the surface. The length of the cellar system below the town is 130 km, and the best located rows of cellars having the best atmosphere are undoubtedly in Szépasszony-valley (Valley of the Beautiful Woman).

Now there are more than 150 cellars in the Valley, the atmosphere of which and the quality of the wines available here have been sung by several poets: Sándor Petőfi, Mihály Vörösmarty and Sándor Márai as well.

When you are in Eger, visit Szépasszony-valley, find your favourite wine and enjoy the magic of the place because there is some mystic quiet, charm and serenity here inspired by the past, art of viticulture and viniculture and joyfulness of the locals.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Egerszalok, Egerszalok, Heves County, Northern Hungary

The fameous thermal resort Egerszalók is just a few minutes drive from Eger. We visit the spectacular "Salt Hill and Water Terraces". They are naturally built by two thermal springs.

Duration: 20 minutes