Várpalota

Várpalota is a town of 19,000 people (2018) in Veszprém County.

Understand

Várpalota

It was a mining town during the Socialist era, but the mines have been closed. Most of the citizens work in the nearby cities, Veszprém or Székesfehérvár.

Get in

It is 90 km from Budapest, halfway between two county seats, Székesfehérvár and Veszprém.

The Székesfehérvár – Szombathely railway line passes through Várpalota, which has one stopsin the city: Várpalota railway station .

Get around

In Várpalota, the basis of local transport is the highway running through the city in an east-west direction, called Veszprémi út, and Fehérvári út.

There are basically 7 local bus lines in Várpalota, with a total of 10 lines in the city.

See

• Lutheran church, Thury György tér 1 (behind the castle), ☏ +36 20 8243478, varpalota@lutheran.hu. It was built in 1777/80 without a tower, on the site of an earlier church. The tower was completed in 1805, the galleries in 1810 and the altarpiece in 1799. 
• 1 Thury Castle (Várpalotai vár), Hunyadi Mátyás tér 1, ☏ +36 88 371299, titkarsag@thuryvar.hu. It is home to the Museum of Chemistry, and the collection of the memories of coal mining. Concerts and theatre performances are held there every summer. (updated Nov 2021)
  • Museum of Chemistry (Magyar Vegyészeti Múzeum), Thury Castle, Hunyadi Mátyás tér 1, ☏ +36 88 575670. 
• Ruins of the Castle of Bátorkő-Pusztapalota (Bátorkő-Pusztapalota várának romjai)
• Gyula Nagy Gallery (Nagy Gyula Galéria)
• Wind farm of Inota (Inotai szélerőmű)
• Evangelical Church (Evangélikus templom)
• Reformed Church (Református templom)
• Baroque Reformed church with its irregularly arched western façade. It was built on the walls of the former Hussar Castle. It houses the memorial plaque of Mária Molnár.
• Community Center (Jó Szerencsét Művelődési Központ)
• Sára Fodor's Country House (Fodor Sára Tájház), ☏ +36 88 472 305. A residential house built of natural stone at the beginning of the 19th century, which was left at the foot of prefabricated houses during the town planning. In the restored peasant baroque building you can see mainly the local historical materials collected locally, which mainly shows the rich agricultural and industrial past of the settlement. 
• Szabo's sand mining (Szabó-féle homokbánya). It is in one of the garden city parts of Várpalota, south of the main road No. 8. The lower 2-meter part of the 9-meter-high wall has yellow sand deposited from the sea. Gray river sand, rich in fossils, is 4-6 meters thick. The sand layer is young, covered with a coarse layer of gravel. 
• Roman tumuli of Inota (Inotai római-kori halomsírok)
• Church of Inota (Inotai templom): The Árpádian church in Inota was dedicated to St. Martin. It was built in the 16th century and only a shrine remained in Turkish times.
• Cultural Centre (Béke Művelődési Ház)
• Roman Catholic Church (Római katolikus templom) Romanesque and early-Gothic frescos in a particularly good condition. One of the World War I memorials erected in those days and destroyed in the tempests of the history can be found here.
• Jó Szerencsét (Good Luck) Community Centre, which houses four large-sized Gobelin works of Noémi Ferenczy.
• Ethnographic collection and Skansen, Jókai utca 15., Phone: +36 88 472305
• Catholic Church of Holy Virgin, Szabadság tér, Phone: +36 88 372859
• Nagy Gyula Gallery, Szent István utca 3., Phone: +36 88 472305, info@szindbad.hu) was converted from a synagogue. The one-man exhibition of Frigyes Matzon, one of the significant representatives of constructivism can be visited here
• Museum of Mining History, Thury Vár, Phone: +36 88 371299, titkarsag@thuryvar.hu

Nearby

Kápolna Church in Öskü

• 2 Öskü (between Várpalota (8 km) and Veszprém 15 km). Round church (built in the 11th century based on a Roman guard tower. Roman Catholic church (late-Classical temple, 1843-47, by Count István Zichy). Lutheran church (1785-1786). Late Gothic Wall remains (on the Castle). Remains of a Roman Dam (north side of the Hwy #8). 
• 3 Chapel of St. Donat (Szent Donát-kápolna), Donát u., Székesfehérvár. It was built in the 16th century and renovated and rededicated in 1999. 
• 4 Zichy Castle, Trianon Museum, Gróf Apponyi Albert liget 1, Zichyújfalu, ☏ +36 30 6467089, trianonmuzeum@trianonmuzeum.hu. The library-room with its wooden cover and its frescos recalling mythological ages, is a regular place of cultural events. It includes the Zichy-Chapel (Zichy-kápolna) and the altar carved from sandstone in the Catholic cemetery. Among the graves are the memorial of militiaman martyrs of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence (1848) belonging to the earl's family.