The legend of Szent György-hegy, where a dragon once lived
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‘Szent György-hegy’ (Saint George Hill) is one of the characteristic buttes of the Balaton Uplands, and it has huge basalt columns around its sides. The hill is named after the chapel of St. George that once stood at its feet, and some of the legends about the mountain are also intertwined with the legend of St. George and the dragon.
The bedrock of the mountain came from the sediments of the Pannonian Sea, and circa 3-4 million years ago, basalt and basalt tuff layers were deposited on it due to a series of volcanic eruptions. As the sediments eroded away from the basalt deposits, it became a hill, but in reality, the height of the mountain testifies to the height of the former surface. The conquering Hungarians named the formation ‘Magashegy’ (Tall Hill). ‘Hegymagas’, a village at the foot of the hill, still preserves its memory today.
Due to one of its unique natural formations, several legends were born about a dragon and St. George in the Middle Ages.
The icy cold cave fissure on the northeast side of the mountain called the ‘Sárkány-barlang’ (Dragon Cave) or ‘Sárkány-lik’ (Dragon Pit) was the supposed lair of the legendary dragon. The vineyards of St. George Hill are part of the ‘Badacsony’ sub-region of the wine region of Lake Balaton as the soil is extremely good for viticulture.
Basalt columns
As the hot lava rapidly cooled down, it split into polygonal columns. These formations were further shaped by centuries of weather conditions and today have taken the shape of interesting columns that look like one gigantic organ. The most beautiful such formations are located on St. George Hill where these basalt columns can be 30-40 metres high.
If you want to know more about these beautiful formations, click on the article below.
‘Sárkány-barlang’ (Dragon Cave)
The Dragon Cave is an interesting geological formation on the hillside. The cavity created by the debris from fallen basalt organs is about 10 metres deep. During the winter, snow can accumulate in these gaps and can often last until summer. As the basalt debris is an excellent insulator, the cold air gets trapped there, and it flows out of the gaps during the summer, which is why folk tradition also calls it the ‘jégbarlang’, meaning ‘ice cave’.
The name Dragon Cave stuck because several legends say that a dragon once lived here.
Several legends have been born about the cave. According to Kisapáti, there was a dragon living on St. George Hill who demanded from the inhabitants of the nearby village that a beautiful girl marry him every year. He threatened the villagers that if they did not comply with his request, he would destroy the whole village. Every year, when the dragon took a girl, the whole village was struck by sorrow, until one day, the dragon did not come.
The villagers wondered what might have happened to the dragon and decided to go up the mountain and venture into the dragon’s lair. They found out that the dragon had gotten sick. The villagers hated the dragon for taking their girls; however, the people did not leave him, instead, they nurtured and healed the creature. One day, the dragon said: “Because you have been so good to me, I will never threaten the village and never ask for another wife again.”
The villagers were very happy that they were no longer threatened by the beast, and the villagers and the dragon lived in peace: the people in the village, the dragon on the mountain. As the years passed, the dragon grew old, he could no longer walk nor fly. One night, the dragon died, and as his soul left his body, his last breath turned the whole cave into ice. It is believed that it was that very night when the ice cave was formed and that the dragon sleeps its eternal dream in the cave.
