The planning, history and development plan of the formation of the historical memorial park

In the mid 1990s, most of the Vársziget was covered with forests and brushwood, and only the archaeological excavations cleared the ground for shorter or longer periods of time. The monument of Zala County erected in honour of Saint Stephen in 1938 was destroyed by vandals and the lack of care.

As a matter of fact, two separate initiatives led to the restoration of the place. One of them was the building of the first phase of the Kis-Balaton storage-lake in the vicinity between 1980 and 1985, in order to improve the water quality of Balaton. Shortly after that, in 1985 Bulgaria announced her wish to erect a monument on the place where the apostles Cyril and Methodius carried out their activity. It was at this point that the management of Zala County decided to renovate the memorial place and the monument of Saint Stephen.

Then, from 1996 onwards, the 1100th anniversary of the Magyar conquest also gave a boost to the development of the place. In the meantime, not exactly corresponding with the above concept, the national water resource authorities decided to build the showroom of a new nature protection establishment on this much frequented place. (Kis-Balaton Ház, “Kis-Balaton House”)

In 2001 the first phase was completed by displaying the ruins of Martyr Adrian’s church as a destination of pilgrimage and by landscaping of the surroundings.

In 2009, at the Millennium of the foundation of the county by Saint Stephen the management of the county decided to place a worthy memorial signal of this anniversary at the worthiest place, namely the first seat of the county.