Radó Dezső: Parks and Forests - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1992)
extremely timely as the sand taken from here was used in construction and carriers dumped rubbish on the return leg. Horticulturist Armin Petz, who was also responsible for the maintenance of the nearby Orczy Garden, prepared the first design of the People’s Park in 1868. He was awarded a 2000 crown prize for the large-scale plan, although the project was not realized due to lack of funds. (That story sounds familiar even today.) However, the nursery proposed by József llenczfalvy Sárkány was completed. To praise the initiator a commemorative plaque was erected in 1873 which now can be seen on a boulder by the entrance to the Planetarium. In 1870 Emil Fuchs, the chief horticulturist of Budapest took charge of the afforestation of the area, which by then was widely known as People’s Park. The remaining locusts and the more valuable trees transplanted from the nursery (lindens, planes, wayfaring trees and ashes) constituted the core of the park. The planting commenced by Emil Fuchs was continued in the following decades. In 1890 a dendrological collection was established according to the plans of Ferenc Kulcsár and Miklós Klenszki. During the formation of this taxonomical exhibition care was taken not only with the plantation, but also with the design of avenues. People’s Park may be the poor relative of Margaret Island and the City Park in many respects but not in the diversity of its vegetation, which is richer than most of the other parks of Budapest. Here is a list of species hardly seen elsewhere: CHESTNUT a specimen in Dísz tér, within the broader area named after it (Avenues and pathways are not named in the People’s Park so gardeners call the different places and plots after the characteristic trees found there); COMMON CATALPA- in the Catalpa Plot near the playground by the avenue; JUDAS TREE- an attractive, fully grown, double stemmed specimen in the Orange Plot by the Planetarium. This species brings flowers on its trunk; LARGE-LEAVED MEDLAR- a grove consisting of some 15 specimens by the petrol station sign at the end of the Kismartoni út. They are 1,5 m in height and 1 m in diameter; 19