Győr (D4) is equidistant from Vienna and Budapest. That may well be why it has been inhabited in almost every period in history. Even in Celtic and Roman times an important trade route passed here. It is a land of rivers, where the most convenient fords were in the region of Győr. The Celts, the Romans and the Hungarians built upon the hills next to the fords and shallows.
The old centre of this thousand-year-old seat of bishops and famous city of schools is built around the confluence of three rivers, the easy-flowing Mosoni Duna, the whirling, babbling Rába and the Rábca, on the Káptalan Hill. Today this is one of the most pleasant corners of the city, with many historical sights. The truncated thirteenth-century tower of the Bishop’s Castle, decorated with sgraffito, is complemented by a fifteenth-century chapel. These are the oldest buildings in the town. The eclectic cathedral contains in its fifteenth-century chapel the most valuable work in Hungarian goldsmithery: a gold-plated silver herma of St. Laszlo, the reliquary made for the canonisation of the king and containing a piece of his skull. The stern building of the old seminary houses valuable ecclesiastical collections, treasures and a library, and the largest codex in the country can be seen here. The symbol of the city, the Iron Cockerel, decorates the fountain in Danube Gate Square (Duna-kapu tér). According to the legend, during the Turkish rule the governor taunted the people of Győr by saying that the city would not be free from them until the weather vane (in the form of a cockerel) on the castle wall crowed. A brave young Győr man climbed up to the cockerel and crowed in its place. The next day liberating troops arrived in the castle.
In spite of the central location of this city where three rivers meet, and its importance in industry and trade, it has remained a charming small town, where it is still fashionable to walk up and down the concourses in the baroque centre on a sunny weekend. The new medicinal, thermal and recreation baths provide visitors with an excellent opportunity for relaxation. The whole area is attractive, the villages large and small are famous for their churches and stately homes. West of the city, where the Danube branches out, sandbanks and several hundred islands of various sizes have formed. Szigetköz, rich in birds and natural beauty, is a labyrinth of water, and can be visited by rowing boat, canoe, kayak, on horseback or by bicycle.

Pannonhalma (D4) One thousand years after it was founded, the Benedictine Abbey at Pannonhalma and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. The first monks arrived in Pannonhalma at the call of Prince Géza in 996, and they consecrated their small church on St. Martin’s Hill in 1001. “Ora et labora” (pray and work) the Benedictines were instructed, and the teaching order created a centre of intellectual excellence in Pannnonhalma. In this Benedictine library and archive, one of the largest in the world with 360 volumes, is held the first written text in the Hungarian language. The crypt of the thirteenth-century basilica is over a thousand years old, and its cloisters are the only intact medieval cloisters with stone ribbing in Hungary. A secondary school and a college is run in the monastery, as well as a “monastery shop”, where one can buy special medicinal teas, wines and objects essential for spiritual well-being, all made in the abbey.

Komárom (E4) The whole history of this town on the shore of the Danube has been determined by its strategic location. A Roman fortification by the name of Brigetio stood on the bank of the Danube, marking the frontier of the empire, the “limes”. The first Hungarian king erected an earthen castle here, and later ages did not shrink from building fortresses. Three fortresses stand on the Hungarian and five on the Slovakian side. The largest was built at the order of Franz I, the Holy- Roman Emperor and King of Hungary. The fortress in Monostor, which has space for two thousand soldiers, required two thousand stonemasons and ten thousand assistants. Also known as the Gibraltar of the Danube, the partially underground building was protected by four hundred cannons, even in peacetime. They were intended to secure navigation and the river crossing, and to protect the border and the Budapest–Vienna route. The enormous fortress of Monostor is the largest modern fortress in Central Europe. In the vaulted rooms, now restored, an exhibition of the city’s history can be seen.

Tata (E4) the town has two large lakes and more than one hundred springs. On the shore of Lake Öreg (the “Old Lake”) stands the only remaining fourteenth-century Hungarian mansion by water. The building, which was originally intended as a royal summer home, then as a hunting lodge, is one of the most beautiful Renaissance buildings from the time of the world famous Hungarian ruler, Matthias. It acquired its baroque and romantic style in later times. In the palace you can see a local history collection, and relics of the famous earthenware manufacturing of Tata. The area around Lake Öreg is a nature conservation reserve, and the lake is a resting place for migrating birds, primarily wild geese. The first Hungarian amusement park, with rare trees, artificial ruins, streams, weirs and small bridges, was built on the banks of Lake Cseke on the edge of the town.

Vértesszőlős (E4) scholars learnt the name of this village near Tata in 1965, when a piece of the skull from one of the oldest prehistoric men in Europe (350 thousand years old) was found in the deserted quarry. The prehistoric man was found on the name day of Samuel and was named Samu. He and his companions left a veritable treasure-trove for researchers, with a collarbone, footprints, tools and a fireplace. In the open-air exhibition area, shielded by a glass pavilion, traces of 200 species of prehistoric plants and the fossilised footprints of the animals who lived here, can be seen.