Almost everybody knows something about it, but few truly know it. And whilst many non-Hungarians are familiar with the words paprika, puszta (the Hungarian name for the Great Plain), csárda (the traditional roadside inn) and csikós (the traditional horseman), only those who have visited this very special land can appreciate their true meaning. A land of empty horizons, a land of riches. Europe’s largest grass plain and most extensive salt lakes and salt marshes conceal treasures that can be seen nowhere else. The horsemen entertain the visitor with bravura displays and tricks but have a deep understanding, inherited from their ancestors, of their animals. The wooden carvings of the shepherds are museum pieces, but if you are determined, you can find the descendants of those carvers still at work. The inns will offer the visitor every modern comfort and convenience, but the walls and furnishings speak of the past. In those days such wayside inns were the meeting place for shepherds and herdsmen permanently on the move with their animals. They were also used by the legendary highwaymen, regarded as thieves by the authorities but as heroes and defenders of the poor by the local people. Some of these wayside inns were built straddling county borders. The limit of the ranger’s jurisdiction was the county border, so a fugitive had only to walk from one side of the room to the other to reach the safety of the next county.
The Great Plain is home to many legends, and also to many legendary sights. Its largest constituent part is the Hortobágy, which includes the Lake Tisza Bird Sanctuary, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are three National Parks. Other sights include Europe’s largest flood-plain orchard, one of the most important sites of pilgrimage for Greek Catholics, Central Europe’s largest windmill, the only surviving mediaval flatland brick-built castle, Hungary’s oldest railway station, the world’s second largest cyclorama, and several hundred tumuli constructed over two thousand years ago (5 to 10- metre high man-made mounds of earth used for burials, and as camps and look-out posts). In the west, the Plain is bordered by the River Danube and it is cut down the middle by Hungary’s second largest river the Tisza. But the Tisza lives quite a different sort of life to its near neighbour the Danube. Here there is much less commercial shipping and far more sailing for pleasure. The Tisza has few bridges, but many ferries; it can be crossed by ferry in 11 places, just as in the days of our great-grandparents. You can see at a glance why it is known as the “Blonde Tisza.” The water contains tiny, almost imperceptible grains of sand, colouring it yellow. The naturally occurring sand and shingle banks on the entire length of the Hungarian stretch of the river have formed some notably fine beaches. The Great Plain enjoys the most hours of sunshine anywhere in Hungary, and there is also a splendid choice of well-known spa towns. According to an old saying, even the sun likes to bathe in the thermal waters!
The sun also ripens such Hungarian specialities as the apricot from which the pálinka (apricot brandy) is made in Kecskemét, and paprika, our most important spice, without which there would be no Gyula sausage, Pick salami, pörkölt stew, fish soup or goulash. Another of the region’s specialities is the distinctive Makó onion. In the town of Makó they have even erected a building in its honour: the Onion House functions as a community hall, cultural centre and house of Thalia. Those who like fruit should taste Szatmár plums and Szabolcs apples: they are delicious both fresh and as pálinka or jam. In the autumn nut season it is also worth trying Milota nuts, renowned for their paper-thin shells, and for the fact that at the beginning of the nineteenth century they were traded on the Vienna Exchange.
There isn’t another comparable area in Hungary for special events and festivals connected with indigenous food and drink. There are fish-soup festivals (in Baja and Szeged), cheese and culinary festivals (Gyomaendrőd and Kistelek), a plum jam cooking contest (Szatmárcseke), a sausage festival (Békéscsaba), goulash festival (Szolnok), and an onion festival (Makó), quite apart from various wine festivals.
Only those who insist on high mountains will not feel at home on the Great Plain. Everyone else is assured a truly life-enriching experience.

Hungarian National Tourist Office
www.hungary.com