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Fertö–Hanság National Park
Size of protected area: 23.588 ha, out of this 7492 ha are protected to a greater extent.
Location: The Fertö part is enclosed by Sopron, Nagycenk, Hegykö, Sarród and Fertöújlak, while the Hanság area stretches from the north of Kapuvár to the area enclosed by Jánossomorja, Mosonszolnok and Lébény and within the confines of Lébény.
Visiting: The north of Hanság can be visited without restrictions, but to see the two lakes in Tóköz only guided tours are available. The alder woods of Csíkos and Király Lake can only be visited with a permit, while Király Lake can be visited freely.The Szárhalmi woods can be walked on footpaths for tourists, but the highly protected Kistómalmi moor is not open for the public. To get to the Fertö Lake marsh it is advisable to start from Fertörákos. More information is available at the Visitor's Centre called 'Kócsagvár' in Sarród.
It is said that the most exciting parts of the world are those territories where two worlds meet – where something finishes and something else is born. The Fertö–Hanság area is exactly like that: along the rainy west slopes of Lövérek, in the vicinity of Sopron, it is still alpine climate that is perceptible, but jut a stone's throw away to the east on the hills, it is the submediterranian, thermohphilous oak-woods that thrive. A few more meters and at once we reach the extensive, though shallow saline lake, located westernmost in Eurasia, with vast reeds around it, recalling memories of a world that existed centuries ago. More to the east we can find remnants of a formerly continuous wetland with boggy, marshy/swampy habitats and wide plains reminiscent of the Asian steppes (from where also some peaks of the Alps can be seen in clear weather). All this richness is further embellished by precious historical an ethnographic relics of the past.
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The Fertö–Hanság basin is the westernmost part of Kisalföld (Small Plain), which was formed during the elevation, folding of the Eastern Alps, along the border of the Pannon- and the Vienna-basins. As a homogeneous region, it stretches as far as the Leitha mountains in Alsó-Ausztria. The sunken basin was later formed by erosion and by the wind (deflation). As long as until the 17-18th century Fertö-Hanság was uniform wetlands with an area expanding more than 600 square km, where the waters of the lake Fertö and Hanság were contiguous, and were supplied from the Danube, Rába and Rábca and from a number of smaller brooks. Some of the settlements in the region were only accessible by boat all the year round. The draining and drying of the area and converting it into agricultural fields was attempted several times from the 17th century, but the two water-lands Fertö and Hanság could only be divided by the lock in Mexikópuszta (presently called Fertöújlak ) in 1912. The drying of the low-lying grounds was achieved by the Hanság main channel built (by the youth at a number of summer building camps) in the 1950s.
The lake Fertö and the vicinity
The Lake Fertö , with a roughly north – south direction, with length of 36 kms, has 309 square km. Out of this territory only 75 square km belong to Hungary. The average depth of the whole lake is one meter, which is quite shallow in itself, and this widening south part is the shallowest, swampy part of it. During the history of the lake Fertö, it dried out entirely several times – last time in 1865-70 – and later it revived in a rainier period. When there is strong southern wind, the shallow southern part is scattered by masses of dried out mud-banks, because of the high pressure of wind. The name Fertö, which originally means a area with stagnant water without an outlet, was given by one of the researchers of the lake. The name characterizes briefly and appropriately this habitat, which can be described by shallow water stirred up even by the slightest wind, constantly full of mud grains and the resulting low oxygen and light supply. The colour of the lake is constantly gray, because of the floating mud grains in it, yet the inner lakes of clearings of extensive areas abounding in reeds are dark oily brown, because of the high organic matter content (eutroph) of humin acids dissolved in the water. The water with a high salt content, being reminiscent of the saline lakes in the Alföld, warms up to the bottom in the summer and it freezes to the bottom in winter. This aging, rather insecure ecological scenery is extremely varied and provides habitat to a valuable wildlife.
The Hungarian territory of the lake is almost entirely covered by reeds - clear surfaces of water can only be found over the reeds, towards the middle of the lake, in the inner clearings of the reeds and in the tricky, maze like canal systems which are cut in the reeds. The open clear water surfaces and the settlements around the lake, as well as the inner lakes and the reed exploitation areas are connected by this canal system. The canal system has also been used by fishermen from time immemorial. (Unforgettable boat trips can be taken from the beach resort, beside Fertörákos, to the inner lakes.) This habitat is constituted by reeds, bulrush (Typha angustifolia) and hardy sedge (Carex). In the open clear water surfaces various weed associations, bladderwort (Utricularia), the rigid- and soft hornwort live as well as fennel-leaved pondweed (Potamogeton) imported to the area by birds and club-rush (Schoenoplectus). In the weedy habitats of reeds, thousands of lower living beings circle around: water fleas, water-bugs, spiders, cicadas, day flies, dragon-flies and owlet-moths. In the reedy areas, there also lives the European mud-minnow (Umbra Krameri) and the weather-fish (Misgurnus fossilis), but the typical representatives of the fish stock here are the Fertö carp, the pelecus and the pike-perch, and the tench, the perch, the rudd in the inner lakes. However the widely renowned inhabitants of the lake are the birds: the great white heron, the spoon bill (Platalea leucorodia), the bittern (Botaurus), the great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus), various duck species, the common heron and the purple heron, the gray leg goose, the great reed-warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) and several species of the warblers (Sylvia) live in the vast reeds.
 
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The southeast, eastern shores of reed country are surrounded by a wide strip of wet medows, marshes, saline pasture lands and smaller saline lakes, of which habitat is reminicent of the Alföld saline areas. Typical plants are the camphor (Camphorosma annua), the wild chamomile, or the native salt-tolerant Michaelmas-daisy (Aster tripolium), sea blite (Suadea pannonica), salt-marsh (Salicornia) and the Fertö puccinellia (Puccinellia limosa). On the saline lakelets the highly protected little ringed plover (Charadrius dubius), avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta), the redshank (Tringa totanus) and the black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) nest. On the bird islands of the lakes (eg. on the lakes at Mexikópuszta) bird colonies with a thousand of birds each live: black-headed gulls (Larus ridibundus), the common tern (Sterna hirundo), tufted ducks (Aythya fulingula) etc.The area is an important resting place during the spring and autumn migration of birds, when thousands of birds are twittering in the pools around and in the lake Fertö.
A significantly different world can be found at the southeast shore of the lake. White oak karst scrub forest and wooded steppe meddow associations grow on the Leitha limestone of the row of hills along the Fertö. More than sixsty protected plant rarities create a fairyland including such curiosities as the two species of pasque flower (Pulsatilla grandis)and (Pulsatilla nigricans), nineteen species of wild orchid including the wonderful lady's slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus), dwarf iris (Iris pumila), burning bush (Dictamnus albus) etc. The habitat of glacial remnants, the small, two hectare marsh medow of Kistómalma stretches along the foot of the hills with the common butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) living exclusively here and with the cottongrass (Carex) and with the adder's-tongue fern (Ophioglossum vulgatum).This row of hills is also the wintering place of the amphibian and reptille fauna of lake Fertö, therefore hundreds of thousands of toads, edible frog (Rana esculenta) and spade-footed toads (Pelobates fuscus), toads (Bufo) leave for the enlivening water in springtime and back in autumn in dense, close formations of rows. Unfortunately thousands of them fall victim to motoring on the roads around lake Fertö (especially between Hidegség and Fertöboz). Recently the National Park has started constructing diverting tracks and passages going under the roads so as to help the migration of the frogs.
Hanság
Hanság used to be the largest continuos marshland, which was honoured as 'the mother' of the Fertö by the ancients. The surface of Hanság is situated 2-3 meters lower than the fringes adjacent to the neighbouring areas. This vast flat basin without an outlet was defined by swamp with marshes, broom bushes, swampy medows scattered by little lakes and floating islands. People, hunting, fishing, fowling, crab catching, were only visitors. The name of the area 'hany' originally means marsh.. Villages were mainly built on hillocks ('goronds') standing out a few meters against Hanság. These former marsh islands can still be found while walking around the area, and in their names still referring to former settlements. As it was already mentioned, the drainage of Hanság was finished just fifty years ago, and its fate was sealed with that. This habitat had literally been kept alive by water. After the darainage, the peat-bog marshes collapsed, dried out, and crumbled. However, at a couple of habitats, underground morphological conditions prevented the water from escaping, preserving the former miracles of the 'hany'. These areas are preserved and looked after by the National Park. Examples of these are Király lake, Csíkos alder wood and Zsidó medow next to Osli north of Kapuvár in South Hanság. In North-Hanság, situated in the north of the Hanság main canal, the area between Jánossomorja and Lébény, and Tóköz located a few kms from Lébény with its two strictly protected lakes called Fehér- and Barbacsi-lake.
Kollár Adrián: Hanság
The South Hany areas around Kapuvár are dominated by alder marshes, and gorses. The area of Csíkos alder wood is of outstanding significance, where on the 'legged' alders common herons live in colonies, and nesting of the black kite (Milvus migrans) and the black stork is not uncommon.. Following the Csíkos alder wood towards Király lake, the Király lake alder wood and the alder wood marsh meadow stretching along it. The male-fern and shield-fern (Dryopteris carthusiana) grow in the hardly wadable woods standing in water, with thick underwood. Corncrakes /landrails (Crex crex), short-eared owl (Asio flammeus) and curlew / whaup nest on its terriotory. The former Király lake - because of draining - is mearly the shadow of its former self. The lake, according to more and more indications, is starting to find its old self and it is reviving, because of continuous turf/peat-cutting. We can already see thousands of birds around the lake, and its vegetation is reviving, too. Describing this lake, we cannot miss the legend of Hany Istók, who was caught from the lake by fishermen from Kapuvár in 1749. The creature caught from the lake was an uncivilised, lost, orphaned child that surrived somehow in the wetlands around the lake. The child absolutely wild, not being able to speak, adapted completely to living in the marshes: he was naked, his skin got thick as bark, his body was covered by hair, he had webbed fingers. He was able to catch fish even while swimming under the water, according to eyewitnesses. 17th March 1749 the child was christened István, according to the parish registry in Kapuvár.
Csíkos égererdö (Alnus sp. wood)
Located next to Csáfordjánosfa, south of Kapuvár, the Öregerdö (Old woods) with snow flakes is one of the last survivors of the common oak in gallery forests along watercourses formerly flowing into Hanság.
The territory of the North Hany is larger, but a bit more disturbed than the southern parts. The majority of its territory is constituted by the idillic scenery of wet hayfields, marsh meadows and pools. At a summer dawn, a misty morning can be an amazing experience at these wet areas.
The habitat of the common hardgrass, hare's tail grass meadows of the marshes in Úrhany, Pintérhany and Német-hany, is constituted by the elite of marshlands: several species of orchids, gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe) wild leek (Allium suaveolens), large pink (Dianthus superbus) and many more. Black storks, herons and possibly hobby (Falco subbuteo) again nest in the wooded parts. A considerable population of bustards, not to speak about the meadow wiper live in the North Hany near Jánossomorja.
Tóköz is located in the south-west of Lébény. The two well known lakes of it – Fehér lake and Babarcsi lake – are highly protected areas. The small areas – mearly 200 ha each – yet preserve an extremely valuable wildlife. There are bitterns, dwarf-, purple- and common herons, and reed-songbirds among its several hundreds of nesting birds. During migration the lakes are inundated by thousands of water birds.
Beyond the wonders of nature, visitors can also see some valuable historical and cultural-ethnographic sights in the National Park.
Tóköz
First of all the internationally renowned, ancient stone quarry should be mentioned. Its easy-to-carve Leitha limestone was already used by the Romans to build the walls of Scrabantia (Sopron). Later the palaces of Vienna were built from it, nowadays the stone-quarry provides a mythical scene for concerts and operas in the summer. The east-west Pannon road and the Amber road from Rome heading to the north crossed in the city. Relics of them, among other Roman finds, can be found in Sopron. Such relics are the Mithras grotto sanctuary and the remains of Roman villas unearthed around Sarród. Later Huns, Avars, Pechenegs, Magyars settled in the area. The church in Lébény built in the age of the Arpads is one of the nicest Romanesque style relics of architecture in Hungary. The round church in Hidegség is also from this era. The area is also a treasury of Baroque (after the period of the Turkish ravages) historical monuments (Fertörákos, Fertöboz, Nagycenk, Fertöszéplak, Fertöd etc.). The ethnographic relics of the area are constituted by the typical costumes and material remains of peasants livinig on the 'fertö' and the 'hany'. Eg. the national costume around Csorna and Kapuvár, the village museum in Fertöszéplak, the area and cultivation remains of the free 'hany' near Farád and the special way of growing of willows used for making arts and crafts in the vicinity of several villages. Foek.hu pages
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Edited by syzygy (11/04/08 02:42 AM)
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