Báta

Báta is located in the southernmost tip of the Sárköz region, right along the border between Tolna and Baranya counties. The settlement may be accessed via Main Road 56. It is within half an hour of driving from the nearby cities of Szekszárd, Baja, and Mohács. The village is set into a beautiful landscape of rolling hills, creaks, forests, and meadows, not to mention the River Danube and its islands. Stretching right outside Báta, the Gemenc Forest forms part of the Danube–Drava National Park.

Báta is most famous for its shrine, the single most important site of pilgrimage within Hungary during medieval times. In 1434, following up on a formal request made by King Sigismund, Pope Eugene IV declared the ancient Shrine of the Holy Blood an official peregrination destination. The church guarded a fragment of holy host thought to have oozed blood. During the devastation brought by the Ottoman Turks, all three sanctuaries as well as the relic were destroyed. In 1939, a new church in the Neo-Romanesque style was erected in its site. The parish-feast of the Holy Blood is held at the end of July each year.

The Sárköz region is one of the richest hotbeds of Hungarian folk culture. There are many institutions seated in Báta that are dedicated to preserving and promoting local traditions. Back in historical times, the settlement was an important river port and ferry station, with fishing being a main source of revenue for many families. Halászház (“The Fisherman’s House”) is an exhibit displaying the lifestyle of these people. The Folk Heritage House has been created by renovating a so-called “long house” built perpendicularly to the street and having a saddleback roof. Its period furniture takes the visitor 200 years back into the past. Another important site of the village is János Czencz Memorial Museum. Czencz was a painter well known all over Europe. The museum includes a reconstructed peasant’s living room where visitors may observe how the famous painted eggs of the Sárköz region are made. The decorated eggshells themselves are also exhibited. Some of these masterpieces may in fact be on display during the Egg Painting Festival of Báta as well. There are several guest houses and a hunting lodge in the settlement.