Sóstó Forest

The Sóstó Forest is the favourite excursion destination of the people in Nyíregyháza. Take a long walk in the Sóstó Forest that is beautiful in every season, enjoy the singing of birds and relax!

The Park Forest, with its 371-hectare area, which attracts many to the fresh air in every season with its walking paths, forest gym, playground, and bacon-barbecue places, is a popular excursion destination in Nyíregyháza. The Sóstó Forest, extending between the city and Sóstógyógyfürdő, well deserves to be called the ‘lung of the city’.

Acorn or poppy-seed?

The legend goes that the forest in Nyíregyháza only exists because of a clerical error. According to that, a landowner spending most of his time and money in Vienna in the 18th century heard that the price of poppy-seed had gone up, and decided to grow this plant on a large scale on his estates in Nyíregyháza. So, he wrote to his land-steward to forthwith put a field of a thousand hectares to poppy-seed. Coming home a year later, he was shocked to see that instead of poppy-heads there were young oak trees everywhere on the huge plot. When he called his land-steward to explain this, it turned out that the landowner forgot to put an accent over the letter ‘a’, and that is why the land was put to acorn (in Hungarian: makk) instead of poppy-seed (in Hungarian: mák), and that is how the oak forest, still gorgeous today, was planted.

Have you tried walking barefoot in the forest?

If you have, do it again! If you haven’t, try the 2.5-km walkway developed in the Sóstó Forest and that is part of the so-called Kneipp treatment. A walk in the forest, also recommended to be taken barefoot in the summer, is connected with Kneipp hydrotherapy. The method was used by the residents of the city in the Nyírség. First, they ‘were jumping’ barefoot then in less and less clothes ‘as baby colts, even climbing on trees and doing gymnastics and shouting there; they lived like primitive men’ – reported the writer Gyula Krúdy. Rumour goes that after a while, this was very disturbing for the people crossing the forest, and one day they took away the clothes of the naked from the ground, putting an end to the tradition of naked walks.

Fresh air, the singing of birds, and a forest gym

Have you ever seen a three-storied playing castle in the middle of the forest? Do you want to work out a little? During your adventure in the forest, pay a visit to the forest gym! While walking you can also read Krúdy’s novel ‘The Bedouin of Nyíregyháza’ in six instalments on the boards installed along the walkway.

You can find all of these here:

• Playground
• Gym Park
• Educational path
• Forest Stage
• Gazebos
• Bacon-barbecue places
• Bicycle routes

Accommodations near the Sóstó Forest

Exhausted after your walk in the forest? Looking for a place to stay? Choose one of our nearby accommodations! A forest environment, guaranteed clean air and the singing of the birds – that’s what you can expect.

Pictures of the Forest

Map

4400 Nyíregyháza, Sóstói út