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TIHANY |
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In contrast with Tihany-rév, TIHANY village, on the top of the hill
halfway along the eastern side of the pensinsula, is a traditional-looking
place, full of old houses built of grey basalt tufa, with thatched roofs
and porticoed terraces, their windows and doors outlined in white.
However, it rivals Szentendre as the most touristy place in Hungary,
with folksy stalls lining the streets and parking as expensive as in
Budapest.
In days gone by, the village was dominated by a Benedictine abbey
overlooking Balaton, established in 1055 at the request of Andrew I and
founded, true to the biblical injunction, upon a rocky promontory.
Andrew's body lies in the crypt of the abbey church - the only one of
the Árpád line to remain in the place where he was buried. The building
itself is Baroque, the original having succumbed to the ravages of wars
and time. Inside are virtuoso woodcarvings by Sebestyén Stulhoff, who
lived and worked in the abbey for 25 years after his fiancée died (her
features are preserved in the face of an angel to the right of the
altar), and grandiose frescoes by Károly Lotz, Székely and Deák-Ebner.
Recently restored, the church (daily: May-Sept 9am-6pm; Oct-April
10am-3pm; 220Ft) provides a magnificent setting for organ concerts over
summer. The abbey's foundation deed, held at Pannonhalma Monastery in
Transdanubia, is the earliest document to include Hungarian words among
the Latin.
From the church, it's a few minutes' walk down Pisky sétány, a parapet
overlooking the waterfront parapet, to a small Open-Air Museum (
Szabadtéri Múzeum ; May-Oct Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; 180Ft) exhibiting two
well-preserved houses. The first, with a beautiful entrance way, was
built in the early nineteenth century and inhabited up until 1960; note
the cross on the chimney, a common feature in this region. Behind this
is an old Fishermen's Guild House, its mud-brick walls clad in thin
stone to give an impression of wealth. Inside are the old boats the
fishermen used, and a "wooden dog" sledge for fishing on ice. In the
traditional way, the mud floor of the veranda is washed with mud daily
to deal with the dirt and cracks. Folk dancing performances are held on
the open-air stage most Sunday mornings at 11am. If you want to look
round, it's worth getting here on the dot of 10am to avoid the coach
tours.
Behind the museum at Batthyány utca 26 is a pottery workshop , where
earthenware made from the red clay of the area and glazed in bright
greens and blues is made and sold; ring at the house next door if it is
closed. Continuing along the lakeside walk for another five minutes, you
come to the scenic vantage point of Echo Hill . An echo can
theoretically be produced by standing on a short concrete pedestal and
projecting your voice onto the wall of the abbey church. Legend goes
that the echo is the voice of a princess, drowned in the lake by the
King of the Water following her refusal to fall in love with his son. By
taking a well-marked path onwards, you can circumambulate the Óvár (Old
Castle), a volcanic outcrop riddled with cells carved by Russian
Orthodox monks in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, whence hot
springs gush forth.
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