Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)

Tartalom

The place where the plain, the mountains and the Danube meet

The Danube Bend was born from the embrace of mountains. Mother Earth has been nurturing it with her water since time immemorial. Good winds are steered here by fat clouds. All these benefits often make the Sun smile on this region.

The map shows high peaks, cosy nooks, gurgling streams, ancient forests with poetic names all around: Násznép barlang (Wedding Guests' Cave), Vaditató (Game's Drinking Lake), Látó-hegy (Lookout Hill), Szemvíz-forrás (Eyewater Spring). They all tell stories and, in turn, these places are enlivened by the heroes of these stories. For a short time, in our lifetime, we are the protagonists,

I Wedding Guests'Cave

and it is entirely up to us what kind of stories will be told about us.

Wherever we are that is the centre of the universe. The same applies to the Danube Bend: some claim that the heartbeat of the Earth can be heard at Dobogókő. We can really hear it as well as in any other place on Earth. Similarly, the throbbing of our heart can be felt in every single part of our body, or the roaring of the sea when you put a shell to your ear. It is because everything that is part of a larger whole carries the characteristics of that whole in itself too. By the same analogy, everything that is made up of smaller particles carries all their details in it.

Let us get out of the boring monotony of our lives and enjoy the countryside. We can take a walk in the Grove, wash our face in the Szemvíz Spring, wander along the Gombás Fields up to the top of Látó Hill. We can enjoy images, sounds, scents, the touch of the sun and the wind on our skin. Thus we realize that the universe sometimes hides in the tiniest place, invisible to the superficial spectator.

The Grove I