Őrség

Őrség National Park was created in 2002 at the south-western tip of Hungary, next to the borders with Austria and Slovenia, and protects some 440 km². It is the most recent of the Hungarian national parks.

Its value lies as much in the nature as in the landscape shaped by a distinctive form of settlement. Őrség means "the guard": the district was for centuries a border watch zone of the Hungarian kingdom, and its inhabitants settled in szer, small groups of farmsteads scattered over the hills instead of gathering into villages. The result is a mosaic of woodland, hay meadow, orchard and farmstead that has survived almost intact, largely because during the Cold War the area lay in the militarised border strip and saw no development.

The soils are acid and poor, and the vegetation combines woods of Scots pine, birch, beech and chestnut with wet meadows, peat bogs and clean streams, a combination uncommon in Hungary. The wildlife includes black stork, woodpeckers, amphibians and a dragonfly community of great value. The park also preserves a characteristic architectural heritage, with wooden houses and granaries, and the traditional pottery of Magyarszombatfa.