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Cycling along the Iron Curtain

The Cultural, Tourism and Sport Institution of Murska Sobota organized a cycling study-tour on 27 July, Wednesday in the Slovenian-Hungarian border area in order to introduce the endowments for cycling tourism and the possibilities for developing a cycling destination.

The participants spent the day on bike and rode 56 km along the line of the former iron curtain. They started from Šalovci, where the participants got acquainted with the development strategy of cycling tourism and the cycling projects, then they rode through Hodos and Bajánsenye to Velemér, where they visited a porcelain workshop and the Holy Trinity church that is decorated with the frescos of Janos Aquila. During the cycling tour they visited the energypark and herb garden located in the area of Szentgyörgyvölgy – Márokföld and also the Yurt-accomodation. After that they followed towards Slovenia, to Kobilje and Dobronak, where the mayor explained their activities related to cycling tourism. The destination of the cycling tour was Murania Cycling Centre at Čentiba.

While the participants got acquainted  with the natural beauties and rich cultural heritage of the border region along the former iron curtain, they also learned about the history and development of the areas lying on the route of the tour, and the tourism development strategies in which the development of cycling tourism plays a considerable role, as well as the cooperation possibilities of the service providers, they got familiar with the ways of cooperating with the local communities, the most important and most famous tourism products and the projects being implemented concerning the topic of sustainable development.

The cycling tour was implemented in the framework of the Iron Curtain Cycling international project funded by the Interreg V-A Slovenia – Hungary 2014 2020 Cooperation Program that is financed partly by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union. The aim of the Iron Curtain Cycling (Cycling on the trail of the Iron Curtain) project is developing cycling tourism in the border region of Slovenia – Hungary, and establishing a cross-border tourism destination along the highly important Euro Velo 13 Iron Curtain cycling trail.