Hungary
Case study
The Garden of Somogy
Project data
Project name: The Garden of Somogy, garden of a guest-house
Location: Somogy County, Bonnya
Date completed: 1998
Cost: 9,000,000 Hungarian Forints (c. £25,000) in 1998
Area: 7,000m^2
Designer: Gábor Szücs, landscape architect of the PAGONY Landscape and
Garden Design Company
Overview
Called the ‘Garden of Somogy’ by its designer, this garden is located in the countryside near Bonnya, a
small village in Somogy County. Bonnya lies among loess hills approximately 30km south of Lake Balaton,
a 77km-long freshwater lake, which is a popular destination for tourists and holiday-makers. The natural
vegetation of this region consists of various types of forest – silver linden, calciphile oak and hornbeam-oak.
The buildings associated with the garden serve rural tourism and hospitality.
The client, an economist seeking a rural retreat, bought several adjacent sites and merged them into one.
She had the ruined buildings on these sites pulled down, except for one stable, and then had new build-
ings constructed: a guest-house with eight rooms, a kitchen, a public room, and a peasant’s house in the
traditional style of Somogy County, with two rooms for guests, a public room, a kitchen and a sauna. The
two new buildings and the stable form a frame around the central part of the garden.
This was the core, the starting point for further developments. The central group of spaces was designed
very carefully, down to the smallest details. The total area is around 7,000m^2 , divided into various garden
spaces with different functions. At the entrance is a three-sectioned gate, which opens onto the front
garden with a car park. In front of the guest house there is terraced garden, while the cottage used as a
guest-house is surrounded by a peasant-style garden. The garden between the guest-house and the stable
is designed for barbecues and picnics, while the southern slope is intended for silent recreation, as is the
fruit garden in the embrace of the stone retaining wall. Beyond the garden, the wider estate covers about
3ha. and includes a paddock and a field for sports and amusements.
