Hollókői Világörökség-kezelő (Hollókő, the Living Village)

The company Hollókői Világörökség-kezelő, the World Heritage manager, looks after Hollókő's old village together with the town council, with which it shares the headquarters at Kossuth út 74. It runs the Küszöb information office, next to the car park; sells the Faluséta walk, and rents peasant houses in the old village as guesthouses.

The village they look after

Hollókő is a village of about 380 inhabitants in the Cserhát hills, an hour by car from Budapest, and it is a dead-end village: the road ends in it. Its old village, the Ófalu, brings together 67 protected houses of the Palóc, the ethnic group of the area: whitewashed houses, with a wooden porch and a hipped roof, which took their present form after the fire of 1909. In the centre is the Catholic church with a wooden tower, of 1889, and above the village, the 13th-century castle. In 1987 Hollókő was added to the UNESCO list, the first site in Hungary and the first village in the world to achieve it. Around it there is a protected landscape area of 141 hectares with trails.

It is not an open-air museum: people live there, and many houses are craftsmen's workshops, small museums, shops or guesthouses. The festivals of the calendar, above all Easter, are celebrated with Palóc costume.

The Faluséta walk

The old village can be visited free all year, except during the Easter festival. The Faluséta is an optional ticket that brings together nine stops: the village museum, the Guzsalyas house, a tasting at the Gazduram cheese dairy, a refreshment at the Küszöb office, a visit to a leather workshop with a small gift, the exhibitions of the old school, a weaving demonstration, a tasting at the Kalácsos bakery, the Post Museum with a postcard and the games house. It comes without a guide: you are given a map and go at your own pace.

It is sold at the Küszöb office from Friday to Sunday, from 9:30 to 12:30, and is valid for that day. According to its website it costs 4,000 Ft (3,000 Ft students and pensioners) and 6,500 Ft with entry to the castle. From Monday to Thursday there is a short version, the Faluséta light, for 1,500 Ft, with the museum, the Guzsalyas house, the cheese and the leather workshop. Under-6s with their parents enter free, but only to the museums. On Mondays and Tuesdays some places close, so groups should let them know beforehand by email.

Sleeping in the old village

The company runs the Hollóköves guesthouses, set in original peasant houses in the Ófalu, each different because each family arranged it in its own way. They are booked by phone or email with the office. For groups and special visits, the contact is also the Küszöb office. The village website is in Hungarian.