Goricko Nature Park

Goričko occupies the low hills north of the Mura in the far northeast corner of the country, and it was made a nature park on 9 October 2003, at some 46,200 hectares the second largest in Slovenia, as the Slovenian third of a cross-border area continuing into Hungary as Őrség and into Austria as Raab. The landscape is agricultural rather than wild: orchards, small fields, hedgerows, scattered farms and a great many hollows and streams, which supports species that intensive farming has removed elsewhere, among them the best-preserved otter population in Slovenia. Grad castle at its centre is a huge, half-empty complex serving as the park headquarters.

Highlights

• Grad castle - a very large and partly ruined complex housing the park headquarters.
• The hedgerow farmland - small fields, orchards and hollows supporting farmland species.
• The three-country park - the Slovenian third of an area continuing into Hungary and Austria.
• The scattered villages - dispersed settlement typical of the region.

When to go

April to October; orchards blossom in April and May. Summer is warm and quiet. Winter is bleak and many attractions close.

Practical notes

It is farmland, not wilderness, and visitors expecting dramatic scenery will be disappointed. Public transport is poor and a car is effectively necessary. Grad castle is only partly restored and much of it is empty shell.

Nearby

Murska Sobota is south, and Filovci is southeast.

Key facts