Goričko, the hill country of Prekmurje

What Goričko is, hills and scattered villages

The Goričko park counts 11 municipalities, some 90 villages and around 17,000 people. There’s no big town, so Murska Sobota, on the plain, fills that role. The largest settlement is Grad, whose castle is the park’s headquarters. It’s also an area of many faiths, with Catholics, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Baptists and Calvinists, according to the park itself.

Why it’s a nature park

Goričko has been a nature park since 2003, covers 462 km² and is part of Natura 2000. The Nature Parks of Slovenia network describes a cultural landscape of scattered farms on low hills, with a mosaic of meadows, fields, orchards, vineyards and hamlets threaded by streams and woods. It sits where the Alps meet the Pannonian Basin, and volcanic eruptions from 17 and 1.6 million years ago still show in its hills.

RTV Slovenia explains that for centuries the area belonged to Hungary and was cut off from the other Slovenian lands, and that the Cold War deepened that isolation. The remoteness protected its wildlife, with otters, butterflies, bats, hoopoes, owls and a local variety of the rose daphne. RTV adds that pottery workshops once kept many families going, and that a good number of farmhouses are now owned by Britons drawn by the unspoilt countryside and cheap property. The Nature Parks of Slovenia network counts 47 natural values in the park, and the whole area is ecologically important, with Natura 2000 protection for 11 bird species.

Goričko’s lakes, meadows and birds

Goričko’s lakes are all man-made. Lake Ledava is the largest, followed by Bukovnica, Hodoš and Križevci, which draw water birds that nest among the willows and reeds. The valleys hold wet meadows with Siberian and yellow irises, and on the dry slopes orchids flower among the thyme. From Sotina hill, at 418 m the highest point in Prekmurje, you look over the Ledava valley and, on a clear day, as far as Pohorje.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Goričko before prices climb.

A park across three countries

Goričko is the Slovenian part of a park shared with Raab in Austria and Őrség in Hungary, protecting more than 105,000 hectares. By Lake Bukovnica, the tourist board places an adventure park in the trees and the chapel of St Vitus, surrounded by old trees.

How to visit Goričko

I’d give Goričko one or two days, based at Grad castle or in Moravske Toplice, and finish at Bogojina, at the foot of the hills, with Plečnik’s church.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Goričko and choose by the reviews.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Goričko before prices climb.