Green areas of Debrecen

Debrecen is the second largest city of Hungary, after Budapest -the capital- and it is situated in the east side of the country, quite near to the border where the nation meets Romania at 50km from it.
The city was really damaged after the WWII and after that a lot of it needed to be rebuild, doing that the population kept an eye on the green areas of the city and even today in the hearts of many citizens the love for trees and parks is still strong.
In 2018 the Municipal Government of Debrecen started a “Green City” program, this program aims to evaluate and create more green areas, parks, playgrounds etc. in many more neighborhoods and not only in the city center that right now, along with the Great Forest Park, is the most green area of the city.
Coming into Debrecen it is pretty clear that here plants and parks are a very big thing, one of the most beautiful spaces is the city square where you can find trees, flowerbeds, fountains and green spaces but also a little park behind the big yellow church, right in the middle of the city. Living here for a year has shown how much really the government keeps at heart the good look of the city center and during the nice season the flowers can be changed once even every one to two months.
Not only the very center of the city is filled with trees but many of the main streets and roads have trees and flowerbeds on each side and not far away from the main square we can find the Great Forest and the Nagyerdei Park which is the biggest green area of the whole city.
In Hungary “Public green spaces” are legally defined and regulated in a zoning plan that the municipality has to implement and follow, we can find two different categories of this that divides itself in “public park” and “public garden”; according to the description of the NUPBR public green spaces are public open spaces permanently covered by vegetation with the goal to improve the climatic conditions, protect the ecological system and provide opportunities for inhabitants to relax and participate in sports and physical activities. A recent research in the matter has enlightened 99 public green areas in the city of Debrecen, and the biggest one of them is, in fact, the Great Forest. This forest is situated right in the middle of the city and it was first declared a park in the 18th century and since 1939 is a natural protected area, this space takes up to 1.000 acres and the story sees it nominated since back to 1405. This is a proper forest which also present a smaller and more curated park in the beginning of it where people and families can find catted loans and games for the children and that is a highly frequented place especially during summer.
The forest itself also present 100 years-old trees and between 700-800 plant species.
Last but not least in the University area Debrecen also has a lovely botanical garden, the ticket to enter is of only 550HUF and permits to visit all the park and also, in the right time of the day, the glass houses with the more delicate plant species. This garden can be reached passing behind the main campus, it was established in 1928 and today it keeps nearly 6,000 plant species on display. Its collection of cacti and succulent plants  is one of the largest in Central and Eastern Europe and is renowned world-wide.
If you ever pass by Debrecen these are amazing places that are totally worth seeing!




sources:
debrecen.hu/en
debrecentoday.com
researchgate.net
Csomós, Gy. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 69
hungarianinsider.com