You can vote for the three nominated islands between 13th October and 30st December 2022.
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| Last year's winner: The Island of Mohács at Dunafalva with Roman-age ruins. |
The aim of this contest is to focus attention on the often unknown islands of the Danube. Most of you probably visited the Seychelle Islands before any Danubian Island. This is the ninth poll, and we are happy we have started a tradition and more and more people will learn about these islands across the World.
The winners so far (you might noticed this is a Hungary-based blog):
2013. Kompkötő Island, Vác
2014. Helemba Island, Esztergom
2015. Kismarosi Island, Kismaros
2016. Szalki Island, Dunaújváros
2017. Csallóköz/Žitný ostrov, Slovakia
2018. Molnár Island, Soroksár, Budapest
2019. The Great Island of Rácalmás
2020. Kerekzátony Island, Ráckeve
2021. The Island of Mohács, Hungary
Once again this year, two islands have been selected by blog readers in the eleven-island qualifier. Esztergom's Prímás Island won by a huge margin, while the Gödi Island came a distant second. This year, the Danube Islands blog nominates the heavily regulated Szigetköz, located in NW Hungary.
We present the candidates in alphabetical order, which is also the reverse order of the river's flowing direction:
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| The southern tip of the Gödi Island in 1929 (source: Havas Nelli) |
Gödi Island, Alsógöd
The Gödi Island is known as Sand Island to locals and beachgoers from far and wide, even though the sandy beach covers only a small portion at its southern tip. It's important to know that it is a nature reserve, a far-flung exclave of the Danube-Ipoly National Park. River regulation had also connected this island to the coast, but the Danube ice and local hands have gradually dismantled the artificial barrier to water flow, so that the main branch water can still flow freely in its silted-up bed for part of the year. Much of it is covered by a wild floodplain forest, whose only natural enemy is the recently reintroduced beaver.
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| Braun Georg: A view on Esztergom, with the Prímás Island in the middle, 1595. |
Prímás Island, Esztergom
It is quite hard to catch the essence of the Prímás Island on a photograph, so we decided to present it on a 1595 landscape to indicate how old and remarkable this island is. The northern side of the island, under the castle hill is urbanized with parks, bridges, recreational areas, and huge concrete buildings, while the other side towards Tát is a flood plain wilderness with unaccessible riverine forests. A famous feature of this 2.7 km long island is the reconstructed Maria Valeria bridge to Párkány/Stúrovo. Originally it was made of two islands, the Kutyaszorító and the Vízivárosi Island. Nowadays ist is named after the archbishops of Esztergom. The Prímás Island is a floodplain often flooded by the Danube.
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| High water in the Szigetköz. 2013. May 4th, Kisbodak, St. Christoph's bridge |
Szigetköz
The Szigetköz is the little brother of the Slovakian Csallóköz/Žitný ostrov, where the Danube deposits its sediment entering the Carpathian Basin. It is bordered on one side by the ever-changing riverine labyrinth of the main branch of the Danube to the northeast, and on the southwest by the once navigable Mosoni Danube. Today it is Hungary's largest island, although it is not a real island because the Mosoni-Duna was heavily regulated in the past 100 years. It stretches from Rajka to Vének. It is a densely populated island, with several settlements, including parts of Győr: Révfalu and Bácsa. The area between the flood protection embankment and the national border marked by the "Old" Danube is a landscape protection area.
The poll will be closed at noon 30th December 2022. The results will be available in the first post of the year 2023!
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