Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden
Photo: Teemeah, modified.
Overview
The Japanese Garden in Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden is a Japanese-style botanical garden section within the historic Városliget zoo. It is one of the zoo’s named plant displays and is especially associated with the Bonsai Pavilion and the National Bonsai Collection. The wider institution is both a zoo and a botanical garden, founded in 1864 and opened to the public in 1866.
History
The zoo’s own 2024 article states that the Japanese Garden was established in the 1960s. The Bonsai Pavilion is located within the garden and houses the National Bonsai Collection. In 2024 the zoo began building a terraced tea-planting area on the southern side of the Japanese Garden hill, and in April 2025 announced the completion of Budapest’s first tea plantation, with about 200 cold-hardy tea shrubs.
Design features
The garden includes a small stream, bridge, cherry trees and Japanese-style planting, with the Bonsai Pavilion and National Bonsai Collection as its key botanical feature. Recent development added a terraced tea plantation on the southern slope of the Japanese Garden hill, expanding the garden’s Japanese plant-cultural interpretation beyond ornamental planting into tea cultivation.
Garden elements
Bridges
Enclosures
Waters and islands
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Extant Japanese garden within the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden. The zoo identifies the Japanese Garden as one of its notable botanical exhibits and states that it was established in the 1960s. The garden contains the Bonsai Pavilion and the National Bonsai Collection, making it both an ornamental Japanese-style garden and a botanical display area. In 2024–2025, a new terraced tea plantation was created on the southern slope at the base of the Japanese Garden hill, described by the zoo as Budapest’s first actual tea plantation. The garden remains accessible as part of the ticketed zoo visitor route.