National Park Hortobágy – The Puszta

Hungarian National Park Hortobágy – The Puszta information, tips and pictures for travelers to the Hungarian National Park Hortobágy.

National Park Hortobágy – The Puszta – Hungary

Hortobágy is the largest protected area, and the largest natural grassland in Central Europe with cattle, sheep, oxen, horses, tended by herdsmen, and it provides habitat for various different species (342 bird species have been registered to appear in the puszta). This is an 800 km² national park in Eastern Hungary, in the puszta, rich with folklore and cultural history. The park, a part of the Alföld – puszta (Great Plain), was designated as a national park in 1973 (the first in Hungary), and elected among the World Heritage sites in 1999.

The Hortobágy National Park – The Puszta has been inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO on the 1st of December in 1999 in the category of cultural landscapes, based on cultural criteria iv and v. According to its brief description “the Hortobágy is a vast area of plains and wetlands that have been used by humans for grazing their domestic animals for more than two millennia.