National Park and Nature Protection Areas

National park: the Danube section

The protected national park area stretches along the Danube from the Sió mouth down to the southern state border. Gemenc and Béda-Karapancsa, both belonging geographically to the Hungarian Great Plain, are found here.

National park: the Drava section

Its source found in the Tyrolian Alps, the Drava reaches Hungary at Őrtilos. It is a rapid river with high gradient, carrying lots of sediment.

Boronka Landscape Protection Area

The Boronka Landscape Protection Area was declared as protected in 1991. Of its total area of 8232.3 hectares, 499 hectares are strictly protected. The landscape protection area is located in the western part of the larger region Transdanubian Hills, and within that in the Inner-Somogy area.

South-Mezőföld Landscape Protection Area

South-Mezőföld Landscape Protection Area was created in 1999 through the merger of several protected sites and some others planned to become protected along the border of Tolna and Fejér counties.

West-Mecsek Landscape Protection Area

Declared in 2009, the West-Mecsek Landscape Protection Area covers 10,315 hectares, located in the area between the settlements Pécs, Abaliget, Bükkösd and Cserkút.

East-Mecsek Landscape Protection Area

The only mountainous landscape unit of the Duna-Drava National Park Directorate overseeing the natural values of South-Transdanubia, Mecsek Mountains is separate from the floodplain areas and stands out from the surrounding flat and hilly areas.

Zselic Landscape Protection Area

The Zselic Landscape Protection Area is located in Somogy and Baranya counties, in the western part of the larger region Transdanubian Hills, and within that in the north-western part of the Zselic area.

Babócsa Basa Garden Nature Reserve

The unique value of the Babócsa Basa Garden Nature Reserve is the historic ruin garden, a protected monument, covered by a field of daffodils.

Baláta Lake Nature Reserve and Forest Reserve

Protected since 1942, it is the oldest protected site of Somogy County. Its protected status is justified by the presence of its rich fauna and flora, and the need for protecting the glacial relict bog found here.

Bölcske Iris Field Nature Reserve

The Bölcske Iris Field Nature Reserve includes two big area units which are different from each other both in their geomorphology and vegetation.

Bükkhát Forest Reserve

The Bükkhát Forest Reserve is located in the Drava Lowland, within the forestry district and ethnographic landscape Ormánság, in the administrative areas of the villages Páprád, Vajszló, Baranyahídvég and Sámod.

Csokonyavisonta Wooded Pasture Nature Reserve

The aim by protecting the area is to preserve wooded pastures, a typical landscape element in the Inner Somogy region, along with the associated plant and animal species, as well as to ensure the conditions for extensive, grazing type of grassland management wherever possible.

Csombárd Meadow Wooded Pasture

Extending over approximately 50 hectares, this typical area of South-Transdanubia is located on the eastern border of Inner Somogy, between the villages Mezőcsokonya and Csombárd.

Dávod Földvár Lake Nature Reserve

The Földvár Lake is a naturally cut-off river side-arm (now oxbow) at Dávod village on Mohács Island, which has been a stagnant water body since the 18th century. It got its name (“földvár” meaning earth fortress) from an ancient earth fortress once standing on Földvár hill east of it, whose remains are still recoverable.

Dunaszekcső Loess Wall Nature Reserve

At its eastern end, the Baranya Hills reach the Danube with a high bank. The Dunaszekcső Várhegy is one of such high banks. The area has been protected since 1998 under the name Dunaszekcső Loess Wall Nature Reserve.

Dunaszentgyörgy Bog Forest Nature Reserve

The Dunaszentgyörgy Bog Forest is a remnant of an oxbow once separated from the then Danube bed, located in the northern pocket of the Sárköz.

Fekete Hill Nature Reserve

North of Szársomlyó lies the much lower Fekete Hill. Its bedrock is limestone, and its climate is less sub-Mediterranean than the southern side of the Villány Hills, due to a higher percentage of forest cover.

Kapszeg Lake Nature Reserve

This nature reserve is the remnant of an oxbow which was cut off from the Danube and is now covered with reeds and willow bog. It is a habitat serving as breeding, feeding and wintering ground for many animal species.

Mohács National Memorial Nature Reserve

In August 1526, the Hungarian troops fought a fateful battle with the Ottoman army led by Sultan Suleiman in the outskirts of Mohács. The graveyard located here, final resting place of 1,700 soldiers, commemorates the tragic events of this battle.

Nagy-mező, Arany-hegy Nature Reserve

This 101-hectere section of Mecsek Mountains stretching between Hosszúhetény and Pécsvárad, and including formerly declared nature conservation sites of local importance, is under protection owing to its extraordinary botanical values.

Pacsmag Lakes Nature Reserve

The nature reserve, established in 1990, is located in the outskirts of Tamási, in the valley of the Koppány river. Mostly wetland habitats and, in a lesser proportion, forests and grasslands are found here.

Rinyaszentkirály Forest Nature Reserve

The aim of declaring the area protected was to preserve the once natural plant associations of Inner Somogy and the areas along the stream Rinya, as well as to protect the habitat of animal species typical here, with special attention to the while-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) that has been breeding here for decades.

Szakadát Pasture Nature Reserve

Extending over just a few hectares in the outskirts of the village Szakadát, this nature reserve owes its existence to the occurrence of a rare protected plant here.

Szársomlyó Nature Reserve

Szársomlyó Hill is the highest mass of Hungary’s southernmost elevations, the Villány Hills. Its name originates from an old Hungarian word meaning “bald”. Referring to its rocky, barren surface, local people have known it as the “devil-ploughed hill”.

Szentegát Forest Nature Reserve

The Drava Lowland is an interesting section of the Great Hungarian Plain. The Szentegát Ősbükkös (’Ancient beech wood’) Forest Reserve is located in its north-western part.

Villány Templom Hill Nature Reserve

In the quarry of the area formerly known as Mészhegy, unique Jurassic and Pliocene-Pleistocene fossilic values can be seen in the rock face.

Non-living natural values

When we hear the word ’nature’, it is mostly migrating birds, blooming flowers, adventurous woodlands, and endless plains that come to our minds, which are all living organisms and living communities. However, the lifeless environment of living organisms such as soil, rock and water is as much a part of nature as plants and animals. In addition, the non-living part of nature not only functions as habitats, but some of its elements can also have scientific, cultural, aesthetic and educational value in themselves.

Natura 2000

The Natura 2000 network is the uniform nature conservation system of the European Union, established by the member states based on two directives: the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive. The aim of the network is to ensure the long-term survival of the formerly selected species and habitats of community importance or community concern. In Hungary, Natura 2000 sites and protected natural sites of national importance function in territorial overlap with each other, but not replacing one another.