Szentendre’s Japanese Garden Reopens After Major Renovation

Szentendre

The Japanese Garden, which is open to visitors year-round, is at once a living work of art, a community creative space, and a practical school of Japanese garden design. Its design began in 2010, construction in 2013, and it opened in 2016 thanks to the work of Japanese and Hungarian masters, supporters, and volunteers; this year, it underwent extensive renovation. 

The Japanese Garden is very popular; on some summer days, as many as five hundred people visit it. But it is not just tourists who love it—many local residents also use it for daily relaxation and strolls, since the garden and park are truly a balm for the soul. There is no denying that the Japanese Garden is beautiful in every season.

Its design, with its plants and features, makes it an excellent place for meditation and introspection.

The Szentendre Garden School announced three Japanese garden workshops this summer. During the workshops, participants worked on reconstructing a lookout tower, replacing bamboo elements, building waterfalls, streams, and ponds, relocating Japanese garden features, setting up a QR code-based information system, and performing various garden maintenance tasks.

“We designed the workshops so that people could participate in the most spectacular parts,” Zoltán Dani, the park’s founder and technical director, told Szentendre és vidéke. “There are two types of activities in the garden, both of which are based on hands-on learning. We welcome university students, schoolchildren, and members of the public alike. At the same time, we are constantly working on the garden in between these events. Last year we built a tea garden; this year we renovated the water garden and the main building. Maintenance is an ongoing activity that we carry out through volunteer work.”

The school teaches how to create a natural oasis in the heart of a city and how to achieve the connection with nature that we seek in urban spaces,”

says the park’s director.

During the final workshop in August, participants put the finishing touches on the renovation work; the waterfall, the stream, and the entire main building had been completely renovated using ecological methods—that is, they did not throw away the used materials but largely recycled and rebuilt them. The gravel bed in the dry garden was completely renewed, and all the paths were rebuilt as well.

Via Szentendre és vidéke; Featured photo: Hungary Today

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