Őrség National Park Directorate

The Őrség National Park comprises the Őrség and Vendvidék regions, the unregulated valley of the Rába Valley (the Inner Őrség) and the vicinity of Szentgyörgyvölgy. It encompasses the boundaries of altogether 44 settlements located on nearly 44,000 hectares. This wonderful landscape coloured with forests and groves is located in the southwestern corner of Vas County, where the Magyars who occupied the land installed watchposts to defend the western gate. This is where the region got the name Őrség, meaning ‘watchpost’. The people living here developed the image of the landscape by farming on small plots, buildings that melt into the landscape over the centuries, in harmony with nature and conserving and maintaining its diversity.In addition to natural values, the land carries outstanding ethnologic and cultural history values. Today, it is the National Park established on 1 March 2002 that takes care of these values.