Eger

Eger sits in the wine hills of northern Hungary, a compact baroque town of pastel facades and a fine square, watched over by the walls of a hilltop castle whose sixteenth-century defence is part of the national story every Hungarian schoolchild learns. The town was under Ottoman rule for close to a century, and the most visible trace of it is a slender fourteen-sided minaret, some forty metres tall, the northernmost surviving in Europe, which can be climbed by a very narrow spiral stair. The other reason to come is wine: just outside the centre, the Szépasszony-völgy, the Valley of the Beautiful Women, is a horseshoe of cellar doors cut straight into the soft tufa rock, where growers pour the region's whites and its famous red blend, Egri Bikavér. Between castle, minaret, baroque streets and cellars, it is one of the most rewarding small towns in the country.

History

Eger has been inhabited since the Stone Age, and the town probably grew up in the 10th or early 11th century around the episcopal see founded by St. Stephen, whose first cathedral stood on Castle Hill; Walloon settlers in the 11th and 12th centuries brought vine-growing. The Mongols burned the town in 1241, after which Bishop Lampert built a stone fortress and Eger reached the peak of its medieval growth in the 14th and 15th centuries; in the autumn of 1552 Captain István Dobó and a handful of soldiers held the castle against the Ottoman army, but in 1596 the captain of the day and his foreign mercenaries handed it over, beginning 91 years of Ottoman rule that ended in December 1687 (Wikipedia, Eger).

What you'll find

• Eger Castle - the hilltop fortress, its walls, casemates and museum.
• The minaret - the slender fourteen-sided tower, climbable by a tight spiral stair.
• The Valley of the Beautiful Women - the horseshoe of wine cellars cut into the tufa.
• The baroque town centre - the pastel square, basilica and lyceum library.

When to go

April to October is mildest, with the wine cellars busiest and most atmospheric from late summer through the autumn harvest. The castle and town are pleasant year-round and quiet in winter. Cellars in the valley keep irregular hours midweek out of season.

Good to know

The minaret stair is extremely narrow and steep with a rope handrail, and it is genuinely unsuitable for anyone uneasy in tight spaces or on their feet. The cellar valley is a short taxi or long walk from the centre and, come evening, is a drinking destination that ranges from charming to raucous depending on the cellar and the night. Much of the castle is ruin and museum rather than intact fortress.

Nearby

The Bükk hills and their walking trails rise just north; the Tokaj wine region lies further east.

Key facts