The Budapest Zoo is 150 years old!

It’s been 150 years since Hungary’s very first zoo, the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden in the heart of the capital opened its gates to the public on August 9, 1866, writes hvg.hu.

It was back at the end of the 18^th century that the first public zoos were opened in Western Europe, the zoo in Vienna, for instance, began welcoming visitors in 1780. In the following century, János Xántus, a world-traveler ethnographer and former 1848 army officer, mentioned the idea of establishing a zoo in Budapest. He was supported by József Gerenday, medical and botanic, director of Füvészkert; and Ágoston Kubinyi, director of the Hungarian National Museum.

Eventually, two areas were offered for the zoo in Városliget, and the one closer to the railways was chosen. Then, in order to make the money necessary for such a project, they established a public limited company, which was temporarily led by Leopold Fitzinger and later by Xántus.

Whereas the zoo was built honouring the unity of the nation, Ármin Petz, head gardener of Pest, created the park units’ plans completely free of charge and so did Ferenc Reitter with the lakes and tunnels, while Henrik Koch Jr. and Antal Szkalnitzky also made the buildings’ designs for free. The stock of animals was partly built up by donations and partly through purchase.

About 500 domestic species and several species of monkeys and lemurs, numerous parrots, camels and kangaroos were admired by the visitors in 11 animal houses. Though, back in the day, neither lions, nor tigers or elephants resided in the zoo.

After several delays the opening day finally came and a celebratory opening was held on August 9, 1866. It was considered a real-great event, however, soon the interest of the people started to wane. Therefore, the establishment needed patrons, which resulted in the public limited company’s turn into a company of animal and plant naturalization in 1872.

But even before that, with the help of Queen Elizabeth, the first giraffe arrived to the zoo in 1868. Moreover, the stock started to expand, as the first hippopotamus was purchased from the Berlin Zoo in 1893, and later an orangutan and a rhino also became members of the zoo.

At time of the millennial celebrations even circus performances were given in the zoo. However, the company went bankrupt in 1907, which resulted in the takeover by the capital city and was followed by a renovation. Though, the area got narrowed down due to the operation of the Amusement Park, the Gundel restaurant and the Circus.

Yet, the authorities aimed to recreate the natural habitat of the animals, thus a faux rocky mountain was built, and the animals were separated from the visitors by trenches. The beginning of the 1930s brought further expansion in terms of animals, as an aquarium and an orangery were added to the zoo.