National Botanical Garden

Vácrátót, Hungary, Hungary

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The National Botanical Garden in Vácrátót, Hungary, is a 27-hectare romantic landscape-designed garden that is Hungary's richest scientific plant collection and largest collection of living plants, housing nearly 13,000 plant species and varieties across its grounds. Founded by the Géczi family in 1827 as a castle park and transformed into a romantic landscape garden in the 1870s by Count Sándor Vigyázó with garden designer Vilmos Jámbor, the garden became a national monument and nature conservation area that was bequeathed to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1926. The garden is home to exceptional biodiversity with 62 nesting bird species, 22 fish species in its ponds, and 73 mollusc species, while offering annual plant exhibitions, intimate trails, rose and geranium collections, and countless natural wonders throughout all four seasons. Located about 30 kilometers north of Budapest at Alkotmány street 2-4, the internationally renowned garden welcomes approximately 100,000 visitors annually and features exotic plants in greenhouses, a rock garden, an exceptionally rich collection of trees and shrubs, and a carefully tended garden with plants mentioned in the Bible. In July 2025, the garden became the fourth Hungarian site included on the prestigious European Route of Historic Gardens, and it is now maintained by the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research.