Rédics

Close to the Slovenian border, this village is known primarily for the 24-hour public road border crossing.

In ancient times the Amber Road passed through here bringing with it a bustling trade for the region even back then. With the development of written Hungarian its name was first recorded in a document for 1236. There was already a significant settlement on both sides of the Rédics Stream as early as the 14th century.

Belonging to the ethnographically distinct area known as Hetés, this small village received a new role in the 20th century. As a consequence of the Trianon peace treaty after World War I, the border was drawn here dividing Hungary from the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom which subsequently became Yugoslavia. A border point was built on the former Amber Road and for many years Rédics was a station on the Celldömölk-Boba-Ukk-Zalaegerszeg-Alsólendva-Csáktornya railway line.

In the suffocating political atmosphere of the 1950's, isolation was the fate of this border village. There were concrete bunkers in the area even up to the early 1970's that had been constructed in preparation for war against Yugoslavia two decades earlier. At the same time the railway became a branch line when the rails were taken up on the five-kilometre section between Alsólendva and Rédics, thus paralysing railway traffic between the two countries.

Its public road border crossing has required expansion and modernisation on several occasions due to the continuous growth in its border traffic; the importance of the crossing increased with Yugoslavia's break up into independent states. The busy road connecting northern Europe with southern Europe runs around the village and over the past two decades a new part of village has been developed with a school and a kindergarten. A considerable infrastructural development programme has also been initiated.

How to get there:
By railway, local trains run to Rédics from Zalaegerszeg. From neighbouring Lenti local Volán buses run to Rédics. By car, take Route 86 and look for Rédics west of Lenti close to the Slovenian-Croatian-Hungarian border.