Bánhorváti: Church Art, Nature Reserve and Trails

Bánhorváti brings together historic churches and trails around Damasa Gorge. The two churches represent different aspects of the town’s history, while the Lázbérci Landscape Protection Area offers a glimpse of a landscape that spans several settlements. When planning your visit, it is worth keeping these highlights separate: the church architecture and interior furnishings are the cultural side of the town, while the nature trail and marked route offer points of reference for exploring the landscape.

Church Architecture and Historic Interior Furnishings

Bánhorváti Reformed Church has a painted wooden coffered ceiling and a gallery dating from 1796. Its furnishings also include pews and two painted choir stalls decorated in a folk style. The stalls date from 1720 and 1790. This brings together several historical details in one church interior: the painted ceiling, the gallery and the choir stalls with their different dates.

Another trace of the town’s church history is the stone-built Church of the Holy Name of Mary. In the mid-1790s, the Eger Seminary decided to build this church in Bánhorváti. Together with the Reformed Church, it makes the town interesting to travellers who are interested in religious architecture and local history. The names of the churches and their different architectural features offer two specific points of reference, rather than reducing the town’s history to a single building.

Lázbérci Landscape Protection Area and Routes to Damasa Gorge

The Lázbérci Landscape Protection Area extends across the administrative areas of Bánhorváti, Borsodbóta, Dédestapolcsány, Nekézseny, Sáta and Uppony in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County. The protected area therefore extends beyond a single settlement. This broader geographical reach is an important part of the landscape around Bánhorváti.

A nature trail leads to Damasa Gorge, with approximately four information boards along the way. In addition, a blue-and-white marked route heads towards the gorge from the northern edge of Bánhorváti. These details provide two specific points of reference: the nature trail’s destination and the direction of the marked route. If you are planning a hike, it is a good idea to check the route and its condition before setting out.

If you are mainly interested in the churches, you can consider Bánhorváti as a base when looking for a holiday apartment; if you are more interested in exploring the trails and protected area, you can take these into account when choosing where to stay. The local route descriptions provide different guidance: the nature trail leads to Damasa Gorge, while the blue-and-white markings point in its direction.

More Things to Explore in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén

The wider destination of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén also offers distinct cultural and landscape highlights. The Baradla-Domica Cave System is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Caves of the Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst. The short Aggtelek Cave Tour is one kilometre long, takes 60 minutes and is rated easy. Its length and duration provide a concrete basis for planning a cave experience.

In Miskolc, the zoo and cultural park has a nature trail with a nine-metre-high observation tower and a 32-metre-long suspension bridge. The cave tour and nature trail offer different highlights: the former focuses on tour length and duration, while the latter features the observation tower and bridge. These destinations are distinct highlights within Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, not features of Bánhorváti.

Choose Your Accommodation Priorities

When choosing a holiday apartment, it helps to first decide what you want to focus on. If you want to centre your stay on the churches and trails described in Bánhorváti, you can focus your search on the town. If you are also interested in the cave tour in Aggtelek or the nature trail in Miskolc, compare those locations separately with the location of your preferred accommodation. This helps distinguish the experiences that define Bánhorváti itself from those elsewhere in the wider destination of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén.

Discover more destinations: Berente.

Go to the main travel overview: Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén.