This is one waterfall which won’t blur on you, even at a slow camera shutter speed. Made of a solid basaltic rock, mere four millions years ago.
The unusual rocky formation is located near Lucenec, in the southern portion of central Slovakia, right on the Hungarian border. The waterfall is positioned on the top of a 7.9 hectar large volcanic area, consisting of crumbling penta- and hexagonal columns, almost perfect large brick-size pieces, and loose rocks. The actual stone waterfall of basaltic flow is about 9 meters high, with rounded lava top and beautifully bent vertical stripes coming down.
This natural wonder is worth the climb. Not only you’ll see the stone wonder, that is unique in the central Europe, but on the top of the mountain, there is also an old gothic castle offering a great view all around. From the Slovakia side, the trail (under 2km long) starts near the village of Šiatorská Bukovinka. For most of it, the trail is a pleasant hike through a nice deciduous forest, just on the top it gets quite steep. It takes about an hour to get to the top, considerably less coming down.
As you approach the top, first you’ll see rocks strewn on the hill. This place is called the “Rock sea”, consisting of loose rocks which weathered and tumbled down from the main columns and crumbling mountain top.
Notice some of the perfectly formed stone bricks.
The rocky waterfall is very photogenic, you can take an overall view using a wide lens (as shown in the top picture), and then choose some of the details (see below):
The castle ruins stand on Slovak territory, with the village of Šiatorská Bukovinka on the northern side in Slovakia and Somoskő on the southern side in Hungary. The picturesque castle was built out of basaltic columns on a volcanic rock originally in the 13th century, and completely reconstructed a few hundred years later.
The castle and surrounding walls were built using the basalt rocks. Here is a picture of the castle’s northern wall:
The rocky waterfall and castle of Šomoška (Hungarian: Somoskő) are located on the Slovak-Hungarian border, between Salgótarján and Fiľakovo.
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