Duna-Ipoly

The Danube-Ipoly National Park was created in 1997 north of Budapest and protects some 600 km² around the Danube Bend, the stretch where the river turns sharply south between the Pilis mountains, to the west, and the Börzsöny, to the east.

The geological contrast between the two is marked: Pilis is a limestone and dolomite massif, with karst, caves and dry slopes of thermophilous vegetation, while the Börzsöny is volcanic in origin, with rounded summits covered in beech and oak woods. That diversity of substrates and aspects produces a high botanical richness and numerous Pannonian endemics.

The park holds a notable raptor fauna, with eastern imperial eagle and saker falcon, both threatened at a European scale with important populations in Hungary, as well as wildcat, dormouse and a bat community tied to the caves of the Pilis. The territory also carries considerable historical weight: the Danube Bend was the frontier of the Roman Empire, with remains of the limes, and later the centre of the medieval Hungarian kingdom, with Esztergom and Visegrád on its edges. The Pilis area has been recognised as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO since 1980.