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Great Continental Railway Journeys - Season 9 Episode 15 - Eger to Hortobágy
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00:01I'm embarking on a new series of railway journeys, exploring Europe's most
00:08beautiful and historic regions. Oh, we're about to set off.
00:14From Belgium. Oh, I'm loving this.
00:20To Hungary. Oh, this is amazing. And the islands of Sardinia.
00:29Fantastic. And Corsica.
00:34I'll enjoy nature, history, culture and fun in some of Europe's most enchanting places.
00:44I am looking forward to a tremendous railway adventure.
01:08It's the final leg of my great Hungarian rail tour. A journey that began in a part of Hungary that
01:16felt comfortably suburban. A stone's throw from Vienna will end in cowboy country near the Romanian border.
01:24This has been an excursion to the east, culturally as well as physically.
01:30Hungary was part of the Western group of nations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
01:37But then it spent years in the grip of the Soviet Union which seized Eastern Europe.
01:44I'll look back further to a time when Hungary was under Turkish rule.
01:49I'll round up cattle and I'll drink bull's blood.
01:56Beginning in the far northwest region, I traveled to the capital, Budapest, and continued south towards the Serbian border.
02:05Now my route takes me to the mountains of the north and beyond to finish in the wilds of the
02:10great Hungarian plain.
02:12Using its extensive rail network, I'm discovering how Hungary's culture has survived a history that's involved violence, disappointment, and pain.
02:26One of the natural boundaries of the old kingdom of Hungary was the Carpathian Mountains.
02:32It's one of the longest chains in Europe, with peaks that rise to more than 2,600 metres.
02:40But when Hungary lost so much territory after the end of the First World War, it became almost a mountain
02:48-free zone.
02:49We're now passing the highest summit left to Hungary at just over 1,000 metres.
03:00Continuing through the northern county of Hebs for around 30 miles, my first stop this morning is the city of
03:07Eger.
03:07L
03:09It is the most important part of the country.
03:14It is the most important part of the country.
03:27Dating back to the 11th century,
03:30it's famous throughout Hungary for its defence against Turkish invaders.
03:35The mighty Kingdom of Hungary was occupied by the Muslim Ottoman Empire between 1541 and 1699.
03:46And the long struggle against the Turks is actively remembered today.
03:55The vast Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman I,
03:59had conquered the centre of the country ruled by the Christian Habsburg monarchy,
04:03including the capital, Buda.
04:06The Turks attacked the stronghold of Eger,
04:09which was gateway to the north's gold and silver mines.
04:15In 1552, at its hilltop castle,
04:20Hungarian troops, led by a legendary soldier, Istvan Dobbo,
04:24staged an historic fight back.
04:27My guide here at the castle's museum is Bianca Tote.
04:33Hello, Bianca.
04:34Welcome to Eger Castle.
04:36Tell me about the famous siege and battle of the castle.
04:39It was in 1552 and it was one of the greatest battles of the Hungarians.
04:45It was a really intense fight which lasted for 38 days.
04:51What were the odds?
04:53Well, it did not look good for the Hungarians.
04:55They were just over 2,000 soldiers protecting the castle
04:59and the Ottomans were 30,000 to 40,000.
05:03Wow.
05:05Tell me about the great hero, Istvan Dobbo.
05:07He was the leader of the castle.
05:10He prepared well.
05:12He did everything he could to make sure the castle is protected.
05:18And he battled with his soldiers,
05:20so he shared the attack and shared the bravery with his men.
05:27Despite being vastly outnumbered,
05:29Dobbo's leadership sustained the morale of his troops.
05:34In those days, they were using cannon already.
05:38Were a lot of shells fired at the castle?
05:41Yes, and most of the castle walls damaged.
05:44And when the siege ended,
05:45they recovered 10,000 cannonballs from the castle walls.
05:50That's extraordinary, isn't it?
05:51Such an intense attack.
05:53Even women joined the fights
05:55and they stood on the castle walls and throw down stones
05:59and they tried to stop the Ottomans with all the courage they could gather.
06:05After a 36-hour assault failed to break the castle's defences,
06:10the Turks fled.
06:12The victory against all odds became a symbol of Hungarian resistance.
06:17And Captain Dobbo was rewarded with the title Prince of Transylvania.
06:22When did you, maybe as a child,
06:25first hear about the Siege of Egge?
06:27When you are, like, 12-year-old,
06:30we have, like, compulsory reading about this.
06:34It's a novel, actually.
06:36Eclipse of the Crescent Moon.
06:37And it was written by Géza Gárdonyi.
06:40He's a very popular writer here in Hungary.
06:43And it really sticks with us Hungarians.
06:50All around the castle grounds,
06:52the drama of the famous battle
06:54is brought to life by a team of re-enactors.
06:57Hello, Benzer. I'm Michael.
07:00Hello, Michael. Nice to meet you. I'm Benzer.
07:02Congratulations on your costume.
07:04Thank you very much.
07:05I am wearing a traditional mercenary uniform.
07:09And you've come to help to defend Egge?
07:12Yes, to defend this castle from the Ottomans.
07:15I am wearing my red ribbon.
07:17That means I am working with the artery.
07:19And I'm wearing a leather vest,
07:22which protects me from the burnings.
07:25And these are the 12 disciples of Jesus.
07:29And the bigger one is Jesus.
07:33And it's just a gunpowder holder.
07:36These are gunpowder holders, too.
07:38It's, like, two or three grams in it.
07:42Aha.
07:43It means if I run out of the bigger one,
07:47I'll always have extra.
07:50Marvellous.
07:51Tell me about your weapon.
07:53This is a Spanish rapier.
07:56It's captured from the battlefield.
07:58And I see the cross here.
08:02They were defending not just their land from the invading Ottomans,
08:07but their Christian faith and culture.
08:11To enter into the spirit of 1552,
08:14I attach myself to the Hungarian forces,
08:17positioned on the battlements, led by Georg Kovac.
08:22So, the weapons these guys are using, our costumes,
08:26these are all historically accurate, are they?
08:29Yes, because not just the Hungarians,
08:31but the Turks, the Persians, the Poles, the Cossacks,
08:35had this type of clothes.
08:37It's a typical Eastern-styling clothes,
08:40but from Vienna to the Western,
08:44every soldier look like Benze.
08:48He's a typical Western European mercenary.
08:51How often do you get involved in a reenactment?
08:55So, we, this reenacting is our life, our passion.
08:59From May to September, every weekend,
09:03we fight at the castles,
09:07and we reenacting not just sieges but battles.
09:11Tell me about this gun.
09:12So, it's more than 17 kilograms,
09:15and we can say it is our largest gun
09:18or our smallest cannon.
09:21It's called a heavy arc abuse,
09:24more than 600 meters shoot range.
09:29Whoa!
09:31The Ottomans certainly know we're here.
09:34This cannon is fired every day at 3.52 p.m.
09:39and 15.52.
09:50So that we all remember Isfandobo.
09:56I suppose most nations remember a battle
09:58of Agincourt, which is part of their founding myth.
10:01For the French, it might be Tour, 732.
10:05For the English, Agincourt, 1415.
10:09For the Spanish, the fall of Granada, 1492.
10:13But I'm not sure that any of them compare
10:16with the Battle of Ager, 1552,
10:19which to this day is felt deeply in the heart of Hungarians.
10:27Following the siege, the castle was fortified and extended.
10:31But in 1596, it came under attack again,
10:34and on this occasion, fell to the Turks.
10:39Ager was controlled by the Ottomans for 90 years,
10:43until they were driven out by Habsburg forces.
10:46At the heart of the old town stands an elegant reminder
10:50of their rule that was once part of the Cathuda Mosque.
10:55This minaret marks the high-water mark of Muslim progress.
11:00It's claimed to be the most northerly tower in Europe.
11:05Most of Europe that had been occupied by the Ottomans
11:08reverted to Christianity,
11:10with the important exception of Bosnia
11:13and, of course, Constantinople, now renamed Istanbul.
11:28Two miles south-east of the city centre
11:31are the foothills of the Buc Mountains.
11:35These gentle slopes are known for their vineyards,
11:38producing one of Hungary's most famous red wines,
11:41Egri Bicaver, or Bull's Blood.
11:45Wine was already being made here more than a thousand years ago,
11:49when the city of Eger was founded by King Stephen I.
11:53Under the abstinent Ottomans, production continued
11:58because the alcohol paid taxes to the occupier.
12:02By the late 16th century,
12:04Eger had an immense underground system of cellars,
12:07as useful for the storage of bottles as it was for defence.
12:11And with such a long history, of course,
12:15stories swirl around the origin of the name of the wine, Bull's Blood.
12:20Legends as lurid as its colour.
12:27Hungary is Europe's seventh-largest wine producer.
12:31And here in the Eger region, there are over 20 square miles of vineyards.
12:37On the Bocchi Estate, one of around 30 wineries in the area,
12:42I'm meeting owner Yanni Bocchi and one of his managers, Shabashor.
12:47Yanni and Shabhi, this is a wonderful place.
12:50Wherever we look, we see vineyards.
12:53Yanni, what got you into growing vines, into growing grapes, making wine?
12:58When I started the business in 1998, I was 23 years old,
13:03and my family gave the land.
13:06I planted 11 hectares vineyard,
13:08and I think I just grew the grape and sell the grape
13:10and finished the harvest end of October,
13:13go to the French shops and snowboarding for months,
13:15after come back and start again.
13:18But 2003, I made my first wine.
13:21Planted again, again, again.
13:23Now I have 30 hectares around the city here.
13:27It's nine different places.
13:28Yes.
13:29What is it about the soil here that makes it good to grow grapes?
13:33Where we are, this region is a volcanic soil.
13:37What kind of a taste does volcanic give you?
13:40More minerals, give some extra freshness,
13:43and then give maybe a longer life to the wine.
13:47This region, we grow 60 different grapes.
13:50And we focus the blended vine.
13:53And we make a white blended vine,
13:56and because here, the bull's blood is a red blended vine.
13:58How long have people been making bull's blood?
14:01I would say maybe 200 years.
14:04When everyone thinks about Aguirre,
14:06they connect it right away with the bull's blood.
14:09Have you harvested already?
14:11Yes.
14:11Yeah, we finished one weeks ago.
14:14It's a very, very good year.
14:15It's a very small quantity, but it's perfect quality.
14:19So, does that mean it's going to be a good year,
14:22but an expensive wine this year?
14:24I hope, yes.
14:30Built around an old quarry owned by Joni's father,
14:34the vineyard's first wines were sent elsewhere
14:36to be aged and bottled.
14:38As the business grew,
14:40this striking winery carved into the rock was opened in 2020.
14:49That is a stunning building.
14:51Yeah, fermentation and ageing and bottling.
14:55Everything is here.
14:57Tell me what goes on in these steel tanks.
15:00It's the fermentation for the wines.
15:03End of the year, fresh wine from the steel tanks
15:05is ready to go for the wood barrel ageing process.
15:09Are these oak barrels?
15:10Oak barrels.
15:11And the ageing process is from six months,
15:1512 months and 18 months in some of the bull's bloods.
15:19And this is just one variety.
15:21This is not bull's blood.
15:23There's a single variety.
15:24Yes.
15:25The base, the bull's blood.
15:26Around half years later, we make a blend,
15:29Merlot, Pinot Noir, that's one.
15:32It's almost a year in the wood barrel.
15:34We can start to see the little oily...
15:37Yes.
15:37...little drops are coming now.
15:39So now we can see the wine.
15:40It's getting thicker and heavier.
15:43And then the smell.
15:45What kind of fruitness?
15:47Definitely red berries, maybe a sour cherry.
15:50And as soon as it gets aged,
15:52it's turning to be a black cherry, plum.
15:56So the fruit flavor that you relate it to changes as the wine matures?
16:02Yes.
16:03Even though it's not ready?
16:04Yeah.
16:05You can tell that it's good.
16:06You can tell that it's on its way to being a great wine?
16:09In January, I was tasting that barrel.
16:12And has it got better?
16:13Yeah, much better.
16:17When the wines have achieved their potential,
16:20they're appraised in the tasting room.
16:25Yanni, this is an amazing chamber,
16:27halved into the quarry.
16:29I feel like I'm in the Middle Ages here.
16:32We cut this tasting room 2007,
16:34start on the top and cut step by step,
16:37and you see it's a natural stone.
16:39It's beautiful.
16:40Which is your favorite legend about the name of Bull's Blood?
16:43Okay, that goes back to the Turkish Empire.
16:46In Hungary, the Turks was always curious
16:49about the Hungarian castle guards
16:51because they are always so red,
16:54and always so strong,
16:55and always so crazy.
16:57So they were telling to the Turks,
16:59they're drinking the Bull's Blood.
17:01So they tried to scare the Turkish away with a little story.
17:07Cheers.
17:08Cheers.
17:16Oh, yes.
17:17A glass of this, and I would take on any invader.
17:32Just south of Eger, in the town of Pusessarbony,
17:36I'm boarding my final train to travel 40 miles
17:40to Hortobaj National Park on the Great Hungarian Plain.
17:53This branch line, opened in the 1890s,
17:57helped to create a national network.
17:59Linking Hungary's two main lines,
18:02it also transported grain and meat
18:04from this huge rural region to towns and cities.
18:10When the Hungarian tribe left the Russian steppe
18:14a thousand years ago and arrived here,
18:16it was a long way from its origin.
18:20But they found the Great Hungarian Plain,
18:23a vast, sprawling, flat, continuous grassland landscape,
18:29the most extensive in Europe.
18:32In Hungarian, it's called the pusta,
18:34meaning bear or nothingness.
18:37It lent itself to animal husbandry,
18:40to the herding of sheep and cattle,
18:42and it required the highest skills of horsemanship.
18:51The fertile floodplain was covered by sea
18:54until 2.5 million years ago.
18:58It lay entirely within Hungary's borders
19:00before the country lost 70% of its territory
19:03following the First World War.
19:05This region was designated as the country's first national park
19:09in 1973
19:11to preserve over 300 square miles
19:14of historic pastoral landscape.
19:24From the tiny village of Horthobarge,
19:27a short walk leads me to its most famous landmark.
19:33For centuries, this has been the road for cattle
19:36moving from Debrecen to Buda and Pest.
19:39There was a toll here,
19:42and sometimes the cattlemen would under-represent
19:45the number of steers that they were driving.
19:47And so a guard was positioned here
19:49to protect the income of the tolls,
19:52and that meant that it was a safer place
19:54for travellers to cross.
19:56This Horthobarge bridge was built in 1833
20:01and is affectionately known as the Nine-Hole Bridge
20:04because of its arches.
20:06It is the icon of the national park.
20:13For over 2,000 years,
20:15indigenous grey cattle, sheep and water buffalo
20:18have grazed on these grasslands.
20:21The parks, lakes and wetlands
20:24are one of the most important waterfowl habitats
20:26in Central Europe.
20:28And every autumn,
20:29over 100,000 migrating crane
20:32stop off to feed before heading south.
20:35The unbroken views have inspired
20:38Hungarian poets and artists over the centuries.
20:41And visitors now come to explore
20:43its nature trails and traditions.
20:47Just north of Horthobarge village
20:50is the Matai stud farm
20:52dating back to the 1600s
20:54where Hungarian horsemen
20:56demonstrate their skills.
21:03Arkos Torbik is one of the managers.
21:07Arkos, we're on our way
21:08to see the so-called cowboys.
21:10For how long have people
21:12had that way of life here?
21:15It's a couple of hundred years
21:17because Horthobarge is the largest grassland
21:21of the Middle East Europe.
21:23It was always for breeding animals
21:25on the grassland.
21:27And on the beginning,
21:28it was mainly cattles and ships.
21:31And after that,
21:33in the 17th, 18th century,
21:37more and more horse came to the Horthobarge
21:39and it was necessary to have man's head.
21:42What's the historical background
21:44to the stunts that they do?
21:47In the 18th century,
21:49a lot of, let's say, bandits
21:51was around in Horthobarge
21:53and they are trying to hide away
21:56from the policemen in those years.
22:01And, for example,
22:02they can lay down their horses in the grass
22:04so they can shelter
22:06and try to be invisible.
22:12As we near the farm,
22:14I get my first glimpse of their talents.
22:20What an amazing skill.
22:23Making the horses go faster now.
22:26They're into the canter.
22:29Faster and faster,
22:31around and around.
22:34Go for it, cowboy, go for it.
22:38The rider.
22:40A fantastic sight.
22:42Accelerated against the plane.
22:48Ah, it's exciting when they come close.
22:53It involves a great deal of talk
22:55and luckily these horses are fluent in Hungarian.
22:58Whoa, here he comes.
23:07It looks exhausted.
23:08Not surprised.
23:10Horses too.
23:11Bye-bye.
23:11Fabulous.
23:12Bye-bye.
23:17Arkos, I believe this kind of horseman
23:19is called a chikos.
23:21What does that mean?
23:21They were named after the young horse coat.
23:25In Hungarian, the coat is chikos.
23:29I don't know much about horses.
23:31Are these Spanish or Arab?
23:34No.
23:34They are native Hungarian.
23:37Some Hungarian soldiers
23:39brought this male horse from French
23:43during the Napoleon War.
23:46This was the founder of this species.
23:49The dark-coated Nognas breed
23:51with its origins in Normandy
23:53became one of the most famous in Hungary,
23:56valued for its strength
23:57and calm temperament.
23:59Here you have a stud.
24:01You're breeding these horses.
24:02Yeah, and we have around 230.
24:05On the beginning,
24:06it was breeded for a military purpose.
24:12As the years go ahead,
24:15it's changed.
24:17It was used in the agriculture
24:20pulling carriages.
24:21After the tractors
24:23and other machines came,
24:25the role of the horse
24:26was much smaller.
24:28Yeah.
24:29But nowadays we are breeding these horses
24:31for a hobby horse
24:33and for a carriage pulling,
24:36like a sports carriage.
24:38I'm not a country person
24:40and I very rarely ridden a horse.
24:43But for me,
24:43there's something very beautiful
24:45about the sight of these horses
24:48standing easy,
24:50steady on the great Hungarian plain.
24:58This historic stud farm
25:00is one of the largest
25:01traditional horse breeding centres
25:03in the country.
25:06Hi.
25:09Let's see.
25:19Suddenly this feels very exotic.
25:21I'm a long way from home.
25:24I've been transported through space
25:26and time
25:28to a very different place.
25:49such a lovely experience,
25:51just wandering amongst the horses
25:53who seem very happy
25:55to accept a stranger
25:57from out of town.
26:06along with tending to the horses,
26:08the Chikoshs enjoy putting on
26:10a spectacular show
26:11for visitors.
26:19How can I fail
26:21to be impressed?
26:30with the cracking of the whips,
26:31we know we're in the wild east.
26:41Oh, horses lying down.
26:45This would be now
26:46what you were talking about.
26:47Yes.
26:49The bandits lay their horse down
26:51and try to hide.
26:54Yeah, that is extraordinary.
26:56The whips are cracking
26:58over the horse's ears and head.
27:00The horses are lying there so calmly
27:03that they're actually feeding off the grass.
27:06I've seen a dog sit like that.
27:08I've never seen a horse sit like that.
27:10Yeah, actually,
27:11this sitting position
27:12is not a normal position for a horse.
27:15But it has a story
27:17that once a German man
27:20with a dog
27:21said that his dog
27:23is clever
27:24than the Chikosh horse
27:27because the dog can't sit.
27:29So the Chikosh
27:30teach his horse to sit.
27:42During this journey,
27:43I've repeatedly asked myself
27:46whether Hungary
27:47is in the east
27:48or the west.
27:49The Hungarian tribe
27:50started on the Russian steppe,
27:52but when it arrived in Europe,
27:54it became Christian.
27:56The kingdom of Hungary
27:58was wrenched to the east
27:59when it was occupied
28:00by the Ottoman Empire.
28:01But then it moved back
28:04to the west
28:04when with Austria
28:05it was part
28:06of the Habsburg Empire.
28:08Being a Soviet satellite state
28:10wrenched it eastwards again,
28:12but with the fall of the curtain
28:14it sprang back westwards.
28:16And now it's part
28:17of the great
28:18occidental institutions,
28:20the European Union
28:21and NATO.
28:23And yet
28:24it remains
28:25exceptional
28:26and demands
28:28not to be taken
28:29for granted.
28:31The one
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