English Park (Angolpark), Tata

These 18th-century landscaped gardens of Ferenc Esterházy are one of the best of their kind in Europe. The park was built from 1783, when the first trees were planted around the artificial Old Lake and Cseke Lake.

It is a special feature of the park that it extends practically throughout the town and the surrounding landscape. However, today only the part around the Cseke Lake is known as the People's Garden (Néppark) or the English Park.

The entrance of the park is guarded by two stone griffins made by Antal Schweiger in 1801. The old palm house is in the area by Hattyúliget Street. Further along, on the right side of the walkway, there is an artificial grotto called Hell which has a Vergilian atmosphere: the water from a nearby hot spring flows down an artificial rock wall inside.

The Small Manor (Kiskastély) half hidden by the trees is today the headquarters of the County Museums Management.

Along with the Small Manor, the area was turned over to sportsmen when they were preparing for the London Olympics in the English Park in 1948. The choice of location was due to the special humid microclimate of the city of springs and lakes. The results achieved at the Olympics bore out the choice, so the training camp, initially only intended as a temporary solution, remained a permanent feature.

A line of mighty, ancient plane trees separate the camp from the Cseke Lake. The population here is considered by experts to be an important source of hybrids. Rare tree specimens also include a pendunculate oak (Quercus robur fastigiate), an incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens), a weeping European beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Pendula') among others.

On the right side of the lakeside walkway a bench dedicated to the poet Kazinczy serves as a reminder of the author, a great garden lover, who visited the City of Lakes (Tóváros) several times. On a small knoll nearby, there is a building imitating a Turkish mosque. Crossing one of the stone and wooden bridges over the watercourse established along the course of the old Blue Spring (Kék-forrás) one comes to the most famous architectural feature of the park, the false ruins.

At the point where the Baj Stream flows into Cseke Lake, a few small islands and marshy area with reedbeds add variety to the landscape. The embankment of the lake is lined by a row of poplars.

The park is accessible by wheelchair.