Alcsúti Arboretum Nature Reserves

Alcsútdoboz, Hungary, Hungary

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The Alcsúti Arboretum Nature Reserve, located in Alcsútdoboz, Fejér County, Hungary about 40 kilometers southwest of Budapest, is a 40.5-hectare protected landscape dendrological garden part of the Danube-Ipoly National Park.

Founded in 1825 by Palatine Joseph (Nador Joseph) of Hungary, who built his castle there in 1818 and personally designed the romantic English-style garden with his wife Princess Hermina of Anhalt, the arboretum showcases 540 species of woody plants collected from Europe, Asia Minor, East Asia, and North America during 19th-century plant exploration.

The park features outstanding old specimens including plane trees, hazel, tulip trees, ironwoods, copper beeches, swamp cypresses, holm oaks, and yews, with particularly valuable specimens like a giant ash with 24 trunks, a seven-trunked hazel, and a 170-year-old Lebanese cedar. Its most famous attraction is Hungary's largest contiguous snowdrop field covering 2.5 hectares, featuring 7 species and 24 varieties of snowdrops that bloom in early March and are protected throughout Hungary since 2005.

The arboretum is protected both as a monument and nature reserve under Ministry Decree 33/2007, serving as a gene bank collection, demonstration site, excursion destination, recreation area, bird sanctuary, experimental station, and historical memorial. While the castle was destroyed after 1945, remaining structures include the castle chapel (now housing a garden history exhibition), a doll's house (with an exhibition on Archduke Joseph's soldiers), a bear house, and a gloriette.