Őrség

In the southwest corner of Vas County you can find land full of forests and meadows where guardians of the country were settled during the Hungarian conquest. Its name derives from these: Őrség (in English: Guard or Watch post). 1/8

Since 1st March 2002 the Őrség National Park Directoate has been supervising the preservation of natural, ethnographical, culture-historical values which can be found on this wonderful land. All together it covers 44 townships, on about 44.000 acres, whereof 3086 acres are particularly protected. Due to the much residue and high precipitation this area is the richest in mushrooms nationwide. The settlement structure here shows a unique picture, these are the so-called 'szeres' settlements. The 'szerek' are groups of houses built on the hill top, which structure comes from the time of Hungarian conquest. Multiple settlements are not among the closed settlements. The rows of houses and the gardens under cultivation are at the top of the hills and heights. One such inhabited elevation is called a "szer". Although administratively, form a settlement, they still look like separate settlements for the outside observer. The distance between the "szers" can be only one or two plots in some places, and several kilometers in others. In the pictures you can see different type of houses like the simple longhouse which you can find everywhere in Hungary, the L-shaped houses and the U-shaped house which is very common in Őrség.