Villány Mountains

As Villány Mountains [ vil ː a ː ɲ ] (Hungarian Villány hegység ) is called an elongated hills in the extreme south of Hungary.

It reaches heights of up to 442 m, but rises by an average of 300 meters above the flat area ( Pannonian Plain ), the next at the 5 km south flowing past, from Austria and Slovenia Drava has an altitude of only 100 m. The two highest peaks are the Tenkes with 408 m and 442 m with Szársomlyó.

The hilly landscape is known in addition to their cultural specificities, in particular through their viticulture on the seven hills. It is named after the town of Villány ( German " Willand " ) named on the eastern edge of the 15 km long mountain chain, the largest settlement - right on the southern slopes of the central hills - is the city Siklos.

The Villány Mountains belongs to the southern part of Baranya County and the region Southern Transdanubia. Here are from the times of the Turkish wars some old castles ( Vár ) or defenses.

The regional capital Siklos is a town with 10,900 inhabitants and the economic, cultural and administrative center of the small area Siklos. It is located 31 km south of the city of Pécs. Siklos and numerous places and small towns in the region - especially in Villány - are settlement area of ​​the Danube Swabians and have - with some interruption after the end of the monarchy of Austria-Hungary - again bilingual place-name signs on, some even trilingual (in addition Croatian or Serbian).

Viticulture in the region

The Danube Swabians (more correctly be described as Hungary German ) were settled after the Turkish wars under Empress Maria Theresa in the region and brought to the victories of the Habsburgs and Croats over the Ottomans not only an economic boom in the depopulated south and eastern regions of the Kingdom of Hungary, but also some new varieties from their ancestral homeland to Pannonia with (eg the Portuguese ). They are processed to two typical regional red wines.

The wine from Villány and the surrounding area has also earned a good reputation outside Hungary. There are numerous wine cellars on the Wine Route Villany - Siklos.