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Tata museums · Architecture and estates
Architecture and estates · since 1783

The English Garden and its artificial ruins

original name: Tatai Angolkert és műromok
for enthusiasts
The garden was laid out in 1783 for the Esterházys by their engineer Ferenc Bőhm around the Cseke lake and counts as one of the oldest landscape parks in Hungary. In its northern part, in 1801, artificial ruins were built to a scheme by Charles de Moreau, and built of genuine stone: clustered columns and twenty-four carved capitals were carried off from the Romanesque Benedictine abbey of Vértesszentkereszt, and a Roman tombstone of the third century was set into a niche. A question follows, and it is worth putting to the reader plainly: a monument put together by taking other monuments apart — is that saving or plundering? There are other contrivances in the garden — a Turkish Mosque, two stone griffins at the entrance — and all of it is now being restored under the Esterházy Heritage project shared with Galanta.
Minimum route
1–1.5 hours
Founded
1783
Ticket
free entry
The English Garden and its artificial ruins
Globetrotter19, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What to see

The artificial ruins of 1801 to a scheme by Charles de Moreau: clustered columns and twenty-four carved capitals from the abbey of Vértesszentkereszt, a Roman tombstone of the third century from Látó Hill set in a niche, gravestones from Szőny. The Turkish Mosque and the stone griffins at the entrance. The garden of 1783 around the Cseke lake, laid out by Ferenc Bőhm. The Esterházy summer house stands in the same garden.

Minimum route — 1–1.5 hours for the essentials

An hour and a quarter.

  1. 30 minutesthe artificial ruins: the clustered columns, the carved capitals, the Roman tombstone in its niche.
  2. 20 minutesthe Turkish Mosque and the griffins at the gate.
  3. 25 minutesa turn round the Cseke lake with the summer house on its shore.
Reference
About the museum
The garden was laid out in 1783 by the Esterházy engineer Ferenc Bőhm and remains one of the oldest landscape parks in Hungary. Restoration is under way through the Esterházy Heritage project shared with Galanta: it covers the ruins, the Turkish Mosque, the stone griffins at the entrance and the gates themselves.
Getting in
Address
Angolkert
How to get there
The garden lies in the north-eastern part of town, around the Cseke lake; the gates are on Hattyúliget and Sport streets.
Opening times
The garden is open all year and unfenced.
Tickets
Admission free. The summer house and the Cellarius inside the garden charge their own.
When to go
A landscape park is made for autumn and early spring, when the leaves do not shut off the water and the follies. In summer the garden is shady, but its contrivances get lost in the green.
Of interest to children
Ruins one may climb and water all round: children have more room here than in any house in Tata. The paths are not level throughout, and a pram has a hard time.
If this moved you
In the same city

The capitals in the ruins were carried off from the abbey of Vértesszentkereszt; whatever else survives of it lies in the castle lapidary, twenty-five minutes’ walk from here.

significantThe Kuny Domokos Museum in Tata Castle

The garden’s oldest building stands at the water’s edge, and since 2026 its upper floor has been showing this very garden — as a stage, as a landscape and as a collection.

nicheThe Esterházy Summer House
checked 19 August 2026 · No. 98

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