English Park at the Mansion

Thanks to its uniqueness, the English park at the Andrássy castle in Betliar was added to UNESCO’s list of artistically and culturally valuable parks in 1978, and in 1985 it was declared a national cultural monument as a rare cultural and historical heritage site spanning several centuries.
 
It covers an area of 57 hectares, making it one of the largest maintained parks of its kind in Slovakia, with rare exotic trees, including the largest magnolia in Central Europe. Exotic trees are planted mainly around the castle and were planted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The current composition of trees in the park is the result of long-term climatic and soil influences, but was mainly shaped human influence. The most widespread trees are deciduous trees and shrubs. There are fewer coniferous trees planted here by humans. The oldest trees in the park are 250-300 years old.
 
We owe the park to Count Leopold Andrássy, who invited the renowned Empire-era landscape architect Heinrich Nebbien to his estate, where he laid the foundations for the park. (Among other things, H.N. was involved in the construction/planting of the largest city park in Budapest – Városliget.)
 
At the main gate of the park, next to the former apartment of Director Klinck, two stone statues depicting the Greek gods Apollo and Venus stand on the pillars of the gate. These are copies, the originals have been restored and are stored in the museum’s depository.