Balaton Uplands National Park Balaton Uplands National Park In 1997 a protected ecological system embracing the adjoining area of the Balaton Uplands (northern shoreland of the Lake Balaton) was established with the connection of the already protected areas which had been separate for a long time. The area of 56 997 hectares of the Balaton-felvidéki National Park mainly consists of these six landscape protection areas. The national park headquartered in Veszprém, in the largest city of the Balaton area. In 1952 the first protected landscape area of Hungary was created in the most attractive, most varied and scientifically best researched area of the country.
Lake Balaton the late 19th century when landowners, ruined by "Phylloxera" attacking their grape vines, began building summer homes to rent out to the burgeoning middle classes. In Hungarian, the lake is known simply as "Balaton". It was called "lacus Pelsodis" or "Pelso" by the Romans. The name is Indo-European in origin (cf. Czech "pleso" ‘sinkhole, deep end of a lake’), later replaced by the Slavic *"bolto" (Czech "bláto", Slovak "blato", Polish "błoto") meaning 'mud, swamp' (from earlier Proto-Slavic "boltьno", , ). Slavic prince Pribina began to build in January 846 a fortress as his seat of power and several churches in