Tata

Tata calls itself the town of waters, and the description is literal: karst springs feed a chain of lakes and mill ponds through the centre, the largest of them the Oreg-to, with a ruined medieval castle on its shore, an English landscape park with a deliberately built artificial ruin, and a set of restored watermills. The Esterhazy family shaped much of what stands. In the cold months the Oreg-to becomes one of the more important goose roosts in central Europe, with tens of thousands of white-fronted and bean geese coming in at dusk and leaving at dawn in a noise that carries across the town, and birdwatchers time visits for it. The lake is walkable in about an hour.

History

Archaeological finds in the area go back to 50,000 BCE, and later it was a Roman settlement. Tata is first mentioned in 1221, perhaps named after the Lombard king Tato; its castle, built by the Lackfi family, flourished under Matthias Corvinus, who rebuilt it in Renaissance style, and in 1526 its castellan György Cseszneky held it against the plundering Ottoman army. The Ottomans took it in 1543, the Habsburgs later burned it, and in 1727 Count József Esterházy bought Tata and the villages around it, after which the town prospered and had a secondary school by 1765 (Wikipedia, Tata, Hungary).

Highlights

• Winter goose roosts - tens of thousands arriving on the Old Lake at dusk.
• The lakeside castle - the medieval fortress on the shore.
• Karst springs and watermills - the water the town is built around.
• The English park and its false ruin - the deliberately built folly.

When to go

October to March for the geese, which arrive at dusk and leave at first light; May to September for the lakes and swimming. Half a day. Dawn and dusk are the birding windows.

Practical notes

Several of the springs have dried or weakened because of past mine dewatering, and some of the water features are managed rather than natural. Goose numbers vary a great deal between winters. The castle interior is small.

Nearby

Monostor Fortress is at Komarom; Esztergom lies north-east.

Key facts