Tatabanya and the Vertes Hills

Most of this landscape is occupied by the Vértes Hills, part of the Transdanubian Range. The largest city is Tatabánya, now seat of Komárom-Esztergom County.

The Vértes Hills have many biological assets such as the only native Hungarian population of the Oriental hornbeam, a relict tree species originating from before the Ice Age and otherwise found on the Balkans. More than 70 bird species breed in the hills, amongst them the extremely rare imperial eagle.

Today mining is of historic significance around here and the mining museums of Tatabánya, Oroszlány and Gánt are worth a visit. Heritage buildings, too, await discovery, such as the Esterházy Palace of Csákvár, the Lamberg Mansion of Mór, and the former Camaldolese monastery on the outskirts of Majk, where the monks once living there remained in silence.