Silver Screen Destinations: Eragon

While the film itself, might not have been so impressive (Rachel Weisz as the voice of a dragon? You’ve got to be kidding.), Eragon offered up plenty of spectacular scenery, causing many travelers to sit up and wonder: Where IS that? and why do they keep spoiling it with all this corny dialogue?

As it turns out, Eragon was shot on location in the mountains of Hungary and Slovakia, one of the most extensive productions to take place in either country in recent years. So what are those beautiful locales really like for travelers now in modern times? 

Turns out the filmmakers were taken in by the area around Őrség National Park, near the Austrian and Slovenian borders. From a park website:

“Not because of its outlaw stories or dark canyons like the Bakony or Börzsöny but the Őrség is still a mysterious place even now. Though in terms of nature and history it is strongly tied to the external world, it still seems to be a closed, introverted world with a particular course of development, where nature and man is in a perfect harmony.

Besides its flora and fauna with often unique species, establishing the national park was justified by the invaluable qualities of the landscape: the plan of villages, characteristic architecture, the amazing, undisturbed landscape covered by pine forests.”

For some ideas on how to go adventuring in Hungary and the area around Budapest, check in with Donovan at the BNA Hungarian Adventure center.