Japanese gardens are not parks per se, but rather works of art, three-dimensional paintings depicting exotic landscapes. All the rocks, plants, lake systems and waterfalls are precisely positioned, together creating a spontaneous effect, like the aerial movements of a ballet dancer behind which lie years of practice. Budapest has several Japanese gardens, the main one visited by the son of the emperor in the 1930s.
When Hungary’s first Japanese garden reopened in Budapest’s Zugló district in 2020, it threw light on the expertise required to create such an attraction now nearly a century old. It was here that the emperor’s third son, Prince Takamatsu and his new bride, visited when on honeymoon in Europe in 1931.
The princely couple liked it so much that they sent over Japanese plants from the Imperial Court. Today there are even a few specimens that have grown from the propagation of these gifts. The old teahouse they sat in was later struck by lightning, but a new one was built recently using the original Japanese technology.
Here’s a selection of photos from the renovated gardens, and other examples from around Budapest:
