The Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden was opened in 1866. The first giraffe arrived two years after the opening. It was donated by Franz Joseph with Queen Elizabeth’s intervention. After the Zoo foundation’s bankruptcy it was taken over by Budapest City Council in 1907. The zoo was almost entirely destroyed in the First and the Second World War. The damage was restored step by step.
In 2013 Budapest Amusement Park closed by Budapest City Council and its territory detached to the zoo. This area will give some place for new buildings and attractions. Nowadays visitors can use some part of the former Amusement Park’s territory. Some kind of animals and some funfair attractions, including the more than 100 year-old wooden-horse carousel can be found here.
We visited Budapest Zoo in September 2018.
