They are building a Tourist Attraction at the foot of the mountain, at an abandoned andesite mine. The historic Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002, is a cultural landscape and an important tourist destination. A huge 100-room, five-star hotel, the Minaro Hotel Tokaj, will open in the near future on the abandoned mining site of the Csurgó Valley. It will be connected to the Active Tourism Centre building. Jánosik és Társai Kft. won the contract for the construction of the 1 billion euro project in an open public tender, according to Jánosik Lajos, owner of the company. The facility will house a 400-seat event hall, which will also include 12 single display kitchens offering gastronomic experiences and an outdoor kitchen. The building will have a useful floor area of 450 square metres.
The construction will include a complete landscaping of the gardens and landscape, with rock gardens, rock steps and walkways, covering a total area of 3,000 square metres. The special site is a deep semi-circular cauldron. Only the two ends of the building will be visible, the rest will be underground. Local stones and materials will be used, as the aim is to create a natural environment. In the Csurgóvölgy quarry, it is almost natural to go back to and reuse local natural materials. The hard andesite, mined for many generations mainly for foundations, is now used as a real stone foundation. The designers intended the effect to be one of returning the quarried material to nature.
The challenges of construction are the lack of space and the presence of natural forces. It rains almost every day. The loose soil is like desert sand when dry, but like a skating rink when wet. Seven to eight metres high loess and rock walls surround the terrain. At the base there is bedrock and stratified water downwards. The reinforced concrete building is set in this environment. A total of 90 tons of reinforcing steel and 700 cubic metres of concrete will be installed. During the excavation work, a considerable amount of earth is moved and used to build embankments, dams and mounds. Half a hundred people are working on the project, which will take a year to complete," said Lajos Jánosik.
