Vicinity of the Zádor-bridge Nature Conservation Area

 abandoned / shut down, nature conservation park / area, interesting place, bridge

 Upload a photo

Territory of the protected area: 71 hectares.
Location: The protected area is situated beside Karcag, in the direction of the centre of Kunlapos.
Visitors: Free of access for visitors.
Management: Directorate of the Hortobágy National Park

The area is referred to as 'just spared to tell the tale' as in many other cases when a protected area is described, but it is very true here in the case of the Zádor-bridge near Karcag. Frst the visitor may think it is just a mirage in the hot trembling air: alkali puszta everywhere nibbled off to the stem by sheep and a stone bridge in the front providing an enthralling sight even in its battered state, recalling the bridge with nine arcs in Hortobágy.
Explanation lies, like in many other cases, in the former conditions. At the time when the nine-arc bridge was built in 1806 (21 years before the famous bridge at Hortobágy) the area was characterized by an original vast marshland rich in water, where the population of the villages used the boat for transport as often as the hores-drawn carriage.
The bridge crossing the river Hortobágy, which had its bed here at that time (sections of the meandering bed are still traceable in the neighbourhood), was part of the route of the mail-coach between Debrecen and Karcag – suitable for the mail-coach meant it was fit for use all the year round. The little river Hortobágy in those times abounding in water was a serious obstruction, which is confirmed by the fact that once when the river was flooding in 1831 the two arches from both ends of the bridge were washed away, that is how it became a five-arc bridge and the span decreased from 70 meters to 50 meters.
The river and the main road have had another route for a long time, and the marshland is also a thing of the past now. But the bridge is reminiscent of times past when the are was called 'thievish', because the passengers of the mail-coach were often robbed by outlaws hiding in the marsh, who were drinking away their ill-gotten money in the nearby roadside inn called Ágota.
It is worth taking a short walk in the neighbourhood, too as the alkali pasture, alkali puszta lawn associations are the habitat of pretty alkali plants (the plantain (Plantago pseudovina), the Roman wormwood, a species of the yarrow (Achillea setacea), the fleabane etc.). The landscape is decorated with the characteristic monuments of the Alföld – tumuli and wind-mills.

www.foek.hu/zsibongo/termve/tt/angtt/zador.htm