A rare rhyolite tuff formation lies about one kilometre outside Mátranovák. Together with the late Baroque church, the mining history and a hiking trail that starts in the town centre, it gives the town several specific themes to explore. When planning your visit, two questions are especially helpful: Would you like to learn about architectural and mining history, or are you drawn to the geological formations and the landscape?
Fehérszék, Hegyeske and a hiking trail
Fehérszék is a rhyolite tuff formation that is rare in Europe. Water erosion has shaped branching channels, deeper erosion gullies and smaller cones there. This offers a geological highlight outside Mátranovák, while the “Geological adventures in the heart of the Palóc region” hiking trail starts in the centre. Check trail conditions before setting out.
A different impression of the landscape is tied to a particular season: in spring, wildflowers cover the slope of Hegyeske. When choosing your travel dates, you can take this seasonal aspect into account alongside the enduringly described rock formations of Fehérszék. The two details offer different perspectives on the landscape, without implying a shared route or walking time.
Church and mining history
The Roman Catholic church of Mátranovák is a late Baroque, single-nave building with a façade tower. The present building was constructed in 1800 at the expense of the so-called Religious Fund. Visitors can therefore encounter both a specific architectural style and a clearly dated part of the town’s history. The church is often open outside service times; visits can be arranged at any time on request. Check local arrangements before your visit.
The Bányász Emlékház focuses on miners’ everyday lives, with written materials and photographs on display. A film screening about underground mining work is also part of the visit. The exhibition and the film offer different ways to approach the same subject: written and photographic records on the one hand, and moving images of work processes on the other. Check before travelling whether the film is currently being shown.
Plan your bus journey
Buses on the Salgótarján–Mátraszele–Mátraterenye–Mátranovák–Nádújfalu route run at least hourly on weekdays and every two hours on weekends. If you plan your journey around this service, check the timetable before travelling.
Further regional context: Neuburg
Those looking beyond Mátranovák to the wider destination of Neuburg will find its own cultural and landscape history themes there. The old village of Hollókő is a Palóc settlement in Nógrád County in northern Hungary and a deliberately preserved, living example of rural life before the 20th-century Agrarian Revolution.
The Pásztó Museum presents permanent and temporary exhibitions in a Baroque Cistercian monastery building that was rebuilt in 1717–1718. The museum also features an open-air exhibition of a medieval glassworks and blacksmith’s workshop, a unique industrial heritage monument in Hungary. The Boszorkány-kő geological nature trail offers a different focus, in the Karancs-Medves Landscape Protection Area, established in 1989 and currently covering 6,928.6 hectares. It illustrates basalt volcanism from 2.4 to 5.2 million years ago; the described rock formations include deep-seated sediment inclusions, curved lava slabs and basalt columns formed by weathering.
Discover more destinations: Szuha, Mátraverebély, Bátonyterenye.
Return to the wider travel overview: Bátonyterenyei.
