The Palots land, rich in beautiful historical and architectural relics and traditions of ethnography, is situated in the valley of the river Ipoly. In county Nógrád the natural values include the ruins of mediaeval castles, which stand on guard on the top of the basalt rocks.

Near Salgótarján you can find the ruins of the castle of Salgó, which stands on a 625m high basalt volcanic cone offering a wonderful view. A special feature of the castle of Somoskő is that the hill on which the castle is situated is divided into two parts by the border.

In Pásztó you can find the only Gothic civil house of a market-town, which has been preserved. It is called the house of the Schoolmaster. In the southern part circular melting furnaces can be seen, which are unique relics of industrial history from the 1100's.

In the Palots Museum of Balassagyarmat you can see the ethnographical relics of the region including a collection of folk costumes of villages and homespun textiles with blue and old gold embroidery. The folk programme of Hollókő called Szőttes Festival was named after these homespun works. In the grove next to the museum the first Hungarian open-air museum of ethnography can be found.

The Old village of Hollókő is part of the World Heritage. In the monument village the houses built in a comb-shaped layout are masterpieces of Palots folk architecture. The Catholic church with its wooden tower built in the 19th century is also typical. The locals often wear their spectacular traditional costumes such as the richly embroidered pruszlik (bodice), the underskirts forming a bell and the flowery bonnet.

On the top of the hill near the village you can see a Gothic castle. There is a legend about the origin of the castle saying that a landlord abducted his neighbour's beautiful wife and locked her up in the castle. The woman's nurse changed her sons into eagles and made them pull down the castle from stone to stone. The captive was rescued and the castle of Hollókő was built.

A significant monument of Egyházasdengeled is the Romanesque small church with a Gothic interior. The Teleki-Dégenfeld mansion in Szirák is a hotel today. In its banquet hall you can see a late-baroque fresco, and some of the halls have been converted into a museum.

An industrial monument of Salgótarján is the József-shaft, which is open to the public as an underground mining museum. The exhibition presents the museum piece mining machines, locomotives and tubs, as well as the life of the mine horses.