Macea Botanical Garden

Close to Arad, in western Romania, the locality of Macea hosts a beautiful historical monument and botanical garden surrounding it.

The botanical garden today belongs to the West University in Arad but started as a park developed by Tibor Karolyi around the castle his father had bought from its initial owner, Petru Csernovics. He hired gardener Josif Prohaska to manage the landscaping works and a pool, a fountain, a tennis court, rows of flowers and new alleys and many new species of plants and trees were added to the park between 1900 and 1902.

In 1935 the castle changes owners again, and approximately 10 hectares of woods are being cut from the site. After undergoing a period of unfortunate transformations between 1935 and 1968, the park receives the statute of ‘dendrologic site’ and under the supervision of professor Pavel Covaci the network of alleys is being rebuilt, new species are introduced and a greenhouse is set up.

If in 1968, around 60 ligneous species were growing in the park, over 2,000 species of plants and trees can be found today as part of the garden. Some of the species to be found here are the Maidenhair tree, the red cedar, the European ash or the Pagoda tree.

While visiting the garden, an important attraction point remains the Macea castle, built starting with 1724 by Serbian family Csernovics. Ranked as a historical monument, the castle combines baroque and byzantine elements with details of modern architecture.

How to get there:

You can take the E81 and DN7/E68 as shown here.