Edelény Castle Island (Edelény Hungary)

Description

Parallel to the construction of the castle, a French garden was laid out on Holt-Bódva Island, which also included a greenhouse and an orangery, along with the farm buildings, of course. The 18th-century French garden was redesigned into an English garden in the first half of the 19th century by the new owners, the German princes of Coburg.

The northern part of the grounds was sold to the Hungarian state together with the castle in 1928, and after the Second World War, the island was finally divided: a sports ground was created in the southern part, completely destroying the former unity of the island. In the 1980s, the former castle park became increasingly neglected, and only a few groups of trees remained as reminders of the 19th-century English park, while the memory of the 18th-century French garden was preserved only by the small cemetery chapel from 1781 along the main avenue.

The castle was originally built on Bódva Island. Regulation of the river began as early as the 19th century, but the current course of the riverbed was only established during the last regulation in 1969. The remaining Holt-Bódva arm had silted up and become polluted within four decades. In 2010, it was revitalised and is now protected as a NATURA 2000 area due to its native plants and animals.