Walk to the Valley Bridge

Walk to the Valley Bridge

As soon as we turn into Ferenc Óvári Street from Szabadság Square, we can see a fairy tale-like building in the distance: the Nunnery and School of the English ladies. These Neogothic buildings were erected by Bishop János Ranolder in 1860 who donated it to the order maintaining the best schools for girls.

The main building can be accessed through the park opening from the narrow Iskola Street. Apart from elementary and secondary education there used to be teacher training here as well. Next to the building, which still functions as a primary and secondary school, we can see the tall tower of Regina Mundi Church rising towards the sky. The Heart of Jesus Chapel was added to the Romantic church in 1924.

From here the steep György Dózsa Street leads us to the top of Jeruzsálem Hill. While walking upwards we pass the modernist building of the town's Community Centre and find a real natural rarity at 4 Dózsa Street: the only yew-tree of the town at the fence of a petit bourgeois house. in the early 1700s this rocky hill was populated by the Protestants, who were expelled from the castle by the bishop and they named it after "every believer's haven, the heavenly Jerusalem".

It is worth turning into the small steep streets called Bem and Festő, which go down from Kopácsy Square in the direction of Jókai Street: here you can witness a unique historical atmosphere as the narrow, winding, zigzag streets do not seem to have changed at all since the 1800s.

Shortly after returning to György Dózsa Street we can find a park with the Reformed Bishop's Residence and Church. The Calvinists built a church here after they had been driven out of the town. The building, which is directly opposite the former Calvinist Church at the top of Castle Hill and which seems to be watching it, can hardly be noticed from the street.

On the other side, not far from the park we can find the fire-station and watch-tower named after one of the greatest town developers and the patron of fire-fighters, dr. Ferenc Óvári (1858-1938). Fire was the biggest enemy of the old Veszprém since the constant northern winds set even the smallest ember aflame in a second. Jeruzsálem Hill was the district most frequently devastated by fire.

From here steep dolomite walls lead us to one of the symbols of the town, the St. Stephen Valley Bridge built in 1938, which is usually called the Viaduct and connects Jeruzsálem Hill with Temetőhegy (Cemetery Hill). In the middle on the left there is a small resting-place. We should stop here because from here we can see the most beautiful views of the town: to the left we can see the greens of Fejes- and Betekints-Valley with Séd Brook and Csatár- and Menyekei-Hill in the background, to the right the we can admire the Bakony Hills.

If we turn around we can see the whole castle. At the other side of the valley, on Temetőhegy we can see Ernő Dohnányi Secondary School for Music, the former Rohonczi Mansion with St. Ladislaus's Church to the right. In the Middle Ages there was a bigger church (dedicated to St. Margaret of Antioch) in its place.
In the valley below the castle we can catch sight of the yellow Davidicum. From here we can go down to Fejes Valley and walk to the zoo and the castle or turn back and go back to Szabadság Square.