Zengő (; ) is the highest

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

in Mecsek Mountains in southern

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

– its height is 682 metres.Pierre Jolivet, Jorge Santiago-Blay, Michael Schmitt, Research of chrysomelidae, BRILL, 2009 p. 23

/ref> The peak is situated in the southeastern part of the range. On its top, along with a look-out tower, stand the ruins of a small medieval castle, which was probably built on the site of an earlier

guard tower A watchtower or guardtower (also spelt watch tower, guard tower) is a type of military/paramilitary or policiary tower used for guarding an area. Sometimes fortified, and armed with heavy weaponry, especially historically, the structures are ...

of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. The peak can be most easily reached from

Pécsvárad Pécsvárad (; ) is a town in Baranya County, southern Hungary. Geography Pécsvárad is on the southern slope of the Mecsek mountains, in particular the part called Kelet-Mecsek. It's at the foot of the Zengő, the highest peak of these mount ...

Hosszúhetény Hosszúhetény (, ) is the most populous village in Baranya county, southwest Hungary, a significant centre of village tourism. It is located 18 kilometres northeast to Pécs, the county capital, in a valley between the feet of Zengő, the highest ...

Name

Its name literally translates as ''"resonant"''. According to the local legend the noise heard from the mountain from time to time is caused by treasure hunters who entered the mountainside hundreds of years ago and could never come out again.

Radar plan

In 2005 the Hungarian government abandoned a plan to build a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

radar on the peak after fierce resistance to the plan from locals and green groups who argued that the radar and the adjacent road construction would damage strictly protected species living on the mountains including the ''

Paeonia officinalis ''Paeonia officinalis'', the common peony, or garden peony, is a species of flowering plant in the family (biology), family Paeoniaceae, native plant, native to mainly mountainous areas of Southern Europe and introduced in Central Europe, Centra ...

ssp. Banatica''. Ninety percent of the total population of that rare

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

lives on the Zengő. Forcing the government to give up the plan was the most successful action of

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

in Hungary for over a decade. The defenders of the Zengő included former Constitutional Court head

László Sólyom László Sólyom (, ; 3 January 1942 – 8 October 2023) was a Hungarian politician, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 until 2010. Previously he was the first president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary from 199 ...

who in 2005 was elected President of the Republic by parliament despite the ruling

Hungarian Socialist Party The Hungarian Socialist Party (, ), commonly known by its acronym MSZP (), is a centre-left to left-wing social-democratic and pro-European political party in Hungary. It was founded on 7 October 1989 as a post-communist evolution and one of t ...

's will. Sólyom often took tours on the mountain.

References

Mountains of Hungary {{hungary-geo-stub

Name

Radar plan

See also

References