Nagykutas – Nature and Village History

Landscape and the old sweet chestnut tree

Kalamár-kút in Nagykutas is known as a spring and marshland. The name brings together two different landscape features: a spring area and wet terrain. Along with the old sweet chestnut tree, it is one of the village’s most distinctive natural features.

The protected old sweet chestnut tree stands on the vineyard west of the village. It is estimated to be more than 500 years old; it has been protected since 1974. The age is an estimate, while the year of protection marks a separate part of its history. The settlement’s layout can also be read in the terrain: Nagykutas formerly consisted of three separate parts, and the three hills remain clearly visible due to the geographic features of the area.

Church and historic cellars

The parish church of Szent Jakab Apostol was built in 1740 and is located on Diósi utca. This precisely dated church building is part of the village’s history. The cellars offer another perspective on historic Nagykutas: at Pöröshegy 64, on the Nagykutas vineyard, stands a listed cellar belonging to a press house. It was built around 1870 and is no longer in use.

West of the village, a row of cellars dating from the 18th and 19th centuries also stands on a hillside. The cellars were once fitted with wattle walls and thatched roofs. The church and cellars represent different types of buildings and uses: one offers a view of sacred architecture, the other of traditional farm and cellar buildings. Together, they provide tangible architectural points of reference for the village’s history.

Crafts and rural culture

Since 2007, Nagykutas’s ethnographic collection has been housed in a detached former milk house. It includes the complete furnishings of a room and a kitchen reminiscent of old farmhouses. These furnished rooms draw attention to domestic everyday culture and complement the history of the cellars with another perspective on village life in the past.

Traditional crafts are also part of the local story. Kónya László set up his own blacksmith’s workshop in Nagykutas; all the tools that belonged to an old village smithy can still be found there. The village’s religious folk culture includes 15 crosses, as well as a statue of the Virgin Mary and a statue of Saint Florian. They preserve the old tradition of popular Baroque piety. In Nagykutas, crafts, rural domestic culture and religious traditions meet the visible traces of the landscape.

Zala in a broader perspective

Within the wider travel destination of Zala, the Zalai Borvidék forms a distinct landscape and cultural area. It developed in Zala on the slopes and plateaus of the Zalai-dombság, as well as on the northwestern slopes of the Keszthelyi-hegység. The wine region comprises two wine districts and 38 settlements. This regional perspective adds a broader landscape context to the history of Nagykutas.

Choose a holiday apartment to suit your interests

If you choose a holiday apartment based on the character of the destination, in Nagykutas you can weigh up the landscape and cultural themes: the sweet chestnut tree and Kalamár-kút alongside the church, blacksmith’s workshop and ethnographic collection. This lets you choose a holiday destination according to which aspect you want to shape your stay.

Discover more destinations: Egersee, Vaspör, Pusztaszentlászló, Csöde, Petrikeresztúr, Hottó, Becsvölgye, Zalaháshágy

See the overview of the wider destination: Zalaegerszegi.