Zirc - a Bakony fővárosa

‘DID YOU KNOW’ questions about the Bakony and Zirc

Bakony

Did you know that ...

• The only natural Scots pine forest inside the Carpathian Basin is located in Fenyőfő.
• The relict species Primula auricula is growing also in the Malom Valley at Eplény.
• 26 of the 28 Hungarian bat species are found in the Bakony.
• The about 4 000 km2 Bakony cowers a large part of the Central Transdanubia.
• Remains of the pterosaur Bakonydraco galaczi (Bakony dragon) were found in Iharkút, Bakony in 2000.
   
  

Zirc

Arboretum

Did you know that ...

• The Zirc Arboretum is the highest located living tree collection in Hungary.
• The oldest tree of the Arboretum is a 400-year-old oak tree.
• The famous 350-m-long line of lime trees was planted in 1809.
• There are about 600 tree and shrub species in the Arboretum.
  

Collection of Agricultural Technology Heritage

Did you know that ...

• The collection features European and Hungarian unique, museum pieces of agricultural machinery and tools used from the 19th century.
• The first machine on display was a GS-35 tractor manufactured by HSCS which have been part of the exhibition ever since. It was made in 1952 in the Vörös Csillag Traktorgyár (Red Star Tractor Factory) in Budapest.
• György Györffy, a farmer from Zirc, donated an entire set of horse drawn equipment. Its exact year of manufacture is unknown; it was probably made in the late 1800s. It was used for threshing machines, chaff cutters, grinders, turnip cutters, water pumps and corn shelling machines. It was drawn by 4 horses run by a horse driver.
  

Cistercian Abbey

Did you know that ...

• Among the two organs of the church, the smaller one has a sound of baroque and the bigger one a sound of romanticism.
• In 1982, on the 800th anniversary of its founding, the title basilica minor was given to the church.
• The main altarpiece showing the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was painted by Franz Anton Maulbertsch in 1752.
• Most of the church’s furniture (e.g. high and side altars, statues and pulpit) are made of wood richly decorated with marbling and gold leaf.
  The church interior regained its former baroque splendour during the restoration of 1995-2005.
• In the Visitor Centre you can see the two 8.5x3m tapestries representing the life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux made in France in the 1750s.
• In the ruin garden you can see the impressing remains of the firs church and monastery.
• The compound pier in the side of the Road 82 is the only intact piece of the church built at the end of the 12th century. It represents the size and beauty of the former building.
  

OSZK Cistercian Memorial Library

Did you know that ...

• The floor and furniture of the library’s main hall is made of typical woods of the Bakony with wood inlay technique.
• The furniture is a work of Mihály Wilde carpenter and his brother.
• The Czech coffered barrel vault ceiling of the main hall is an architectural curiosity.
• The library has more than 70 incunabula and the oldest one is from 1470.
• The pair of globe and celestial sphere from the 1630-40s was made in Blaeu’s workshop in Amsterdam.
  

Natural History Museum of Bakony Mountains of the Hungarian Natural History Museum

Did you know that ...

• The museum was established in 1972 and was the first rural natural history museum of Hungary.
• The ‘Jewellery of Nature’ exhibition presents wonderful mineral rarities of the Bakony Mountains, Hungary, the Carpathian Basin and all over the world.
• The sensation of the ‘Ice Age Giants in the Bakony Mountains’ exhibition are the stunning skeletons of the two woolly mammoth, Tonna and Mázsa.
• Dioramas present the spring, summer and autumn mushrooms in original lyophilised state.
• In the ‘Red Book’ showcase you can see endangered or in the Bakony and in Hungary already extinct bird species.
• Charming dioramas presents the most common forest types, communities and diverse insect world of the Bakony.
  

Reguly Antal Museum and House of Arts and Crafts

Did you know that ...

• The museum’s building, the Reguly House, was built by István Dubniczay, the singing canon of Veszprém.
• The collection of Antal Reguly (1819-1858) ethnographer and linguist is the oldest material of today’s Ethnographic Museum.
• The life, journeys and research activities of Antal Reguly is on display in the permanent exhibition in his birth house.
• The Ural map made by Reguly is still used today.
• In the workshops of folk crafts, you can become acquainted among other crafts with pottery, weaving, folk leather craft, forging, gingerbread baking and candle making and you can try some of them.
• The life’s work of the painter and graphic artist of Zirc, Júlia Bér died in 2012 is also displayed here.