The Valley of Beautiful Women

On the edge of Eger, a 20 minute walk from the middle of town, is a small valley. When the Ottoman’s first took over the castle and town in the 1500’s, many of the residents fled to the valley, dug caves in the hillside, and made their homes there.

 When the Ottomans were driven out, the residents moved back to town, and their caves became their wine cellars. There are more than 300 caves throughout the valley, which is now the home of many of the Eger wineries. 

A lot of these caves are concentrated in an area closest to the town and they range from individual family’s cellars, some which look abandoned, to high end caves owned by the wineries, with tables, covered porches, wine lists and wine showrooms.

Some 50 of these winery owned caves are clustered together in a little valley with a small park like area in the middle. Think of Napa Valley in a cul de sac. Picture bar crawls where the next “bar” (i.e. cave) is 5 steps away. Imagine really really good  wines served to you in comfort in front of these caves. Imagine the best cabernets at 700 Huf (i.e $3.00) a glass, and most all wines priced lower.  

Hey, is this Heaven? No, it’s Hungary.

About the name. In Hungarian, this place is Szepasszony Volgy. Literally, The “Valley of Fair Women.” The popular name for the place is “Valley of Beautiful Women”. The signs in Eger point to “The Valley of Nice Women”, possibly influenced by the local Chamber of Commerce. I’ve also seen travel guides refer to it as “Sirens’ Valley.”  The “experts” say no one knows how the valley got its name.  But I think this whole name thing sounds suspicious.