Arboretum of Szarvas, Pepi Garden

When in Szarvas, you simply shouldn't miss the town's arboretum, which is regarded the best in Hungary by far and contains more than 30,000 different tree species, not native to this part of the country and the Great Plain. The Szarvas Arboretum covers around 82 hectares / 202 acres and features some enormous Spanish pine trees and countless rare species, being a blaze of colour during the Hungarian autumn.

When József Count Bolza, the Guards officer of the imperial army left the town around 1830 he had a 5ha (12 acre) botanical garden laid out on his land in Szarvas and modeled on the gardens of Schönbrunn. His grandson Pál Bolza had moved the gardens from the Anna Woods to their present site because of the river regulations of the Körös. Following his death the arboretum which had expanded to 42ha (210 acres) passed into state ownership. Today there are 1660 tree species from all over the world on 84ha (420 acres), including such rare examples as the gingko, the Japanese sacred tree, and the Californian giant redwood. The yellow-brown leaves of the Japanese maple are especially beautiful in autumn.