Lillafüred

Lillafüred is a small village (officially the part of the city of Miskolc) laying in the heart of Bukk Mountains in Northern Hungary. It offers that many amazing sights and things to do that its’ almost not even possible to see it in just one day. So why not to try it? I loved it and you surely will too.

What to see and do there?

• Palace Hotel. The famous hotel was designed by Kálmán Lux and was built between 1927 and 1930 in neo-Renaissance style. One of the restaurants of the hotel is a Renaissance restaurant named after King Matthias. Its stained glass windows show the castles of historical Hungary. The hotel is surrounded by a large park with rare plants.

• Have a coffee or a hot chocolate in the Hotel Tókert Szálloda és Étterem right underneath the castle.

• Walk around the magnificient hagning gardens. The hanging gardens are below the hotel, between the streams Szinva and Garadna. The highest waterfall – with its height of 20 meters – in Hungary can be found here. The waterfall itself is artificial, normally it would run under the cliff right to the cave but it falls down from a high rock next to the cave (what is actually pretty cool) instead. The internal water tubes formed the Anna Cave at the bottom. But that’s not everything. You’ll also find labyrinths made of creeks and many many foreign flowers here.

• Visit a cave. At the end of the park is an entrance to the most famous Anna cave (with plant fossils preserved in limestone), but you will also find here, near the hotel, some another caves, such as:
• István Cave, a large dripstone cave;
• Szeleta Cave, a cave where many Paleolithic relics were found.

• Visit a historical village, where you will find for example Ottó Herman’s House, a small museum dedicated to the well-known ornithologist and polyhistor, Metallurgical Museum, Szent Florián és Magyarok Nagyasszonya church and much more. There are also some cafés (such as Ámór Kávézó) and restaurants where you can have a rest.

• Then while getting back to the hotel car park where you left your car you can have a walk around the Hámori Lake, the artificial lake formed in the early 19th century by the damming of the water of Szinva and Garadna, to supply the iron furnace with water. The lake is 1.5 kilometres long. In the summer, boats and paddle boats can be rented.

• Buy a souvenir at Lilla Ajándékbolt. I think this is the best souvenir shop over there (and also the cheapest haha). And it’s also amazingly decorated, during the Halloween time are there for example witches (which really looked real), cats, leaves etc.

• Take a half-hour ride on the narrow gauge railway from the picturesque Lillafured to Miskolc, passing through beautiful, wooded hillsides on the way. Then you can, of course, get immediately back or just stay in Miskolc for couple of hours and do some sightseeing there.

• Morning markets at a car park behind the hotel. Behind the hotel is an underpass and when you go through it, you will get to the other side of the railway and in the front of you will be some restaurants, souvenir shops and a lot of markets with traditional handmade products, Hungarian sweets, etc. Right there on that car park you can also park your car and pay only 100Ft for a day.
• If you love hiking, there is also one hike to the Miller’s Rock. The most famous of the Hámor limestone rocks is the Molnár (Miller) Rock. Not only because visitors can enjoy a gorgeous view to Lillafüred, but also a sad legend is connected to it. A hiking trail from the Csanyik Valley (near the hotel) leads to the rock. A wealthy landlord wanted to marry the daughter of the former miller of a fulling mill. However, the pretty miller girl felt true love for the young mill-man working in the mill. When the miller ordered his daughter to be the wife of the wealthy suitor, the two lovers decided that if they could stay with each other, they would rather choose death. They climbed hand in hand up the nearby rock wall and threw themselves down into the abyss. The limestone rock is therefore named as Molnár (Miller) Rock as a memory of the sad love story with the cross on the top standing as a memento.

Haven’t you fallen in love with this place yet? Well, then take a look at these photos gain aand you certainly will.