Details
Meseerdő/Fairytale forest
Once upon a time, there was an amusement park in Pécs. It was nice, it was good, but the equipment is outdated and today's young people want a different kind of experience. Thanks to Biokom Nonprofit Ltd Pécs, the forest site, abandoned for years, became a Fairytale Forest in May 2024.
What is the Fairytale Forest?
A thematic fairytale park, where we are guided through the story of King Dömör by Éva Radnai and Levente Császár fairytale writers from Pécs, while we can see highly imaginative wooden installations by woodcarver Gábor Baráth. During the forest walk, we can not only follow the story - and even become characters ourselves - but also learn about the history and legends of the area. Be careful, because you might meet a sleeping giant, big enough to you can stand in the palm of his hand or even in his mouth :)
The park is barrier-free and open to visitors free of charge every day of the year.
The Fairytale Forest is not just for children, our association also took a trip on a day in June 2024 and rolled through the pleasant, shady forest. We really enjoyed it!
Accessibility of the fairytale forest:
Even though we arrived in the summer and on a Saturday, there was plenty of parking in front of the entrance. If we were lucky, we could park our car directly in front of the entrance. Of course, this should not be a matter of luck, and there should be a requirement for accessible parking to be painted near the entrance.
The entrance is always open, you can easily enter through the stone gate, with no other doors blocking your way into the fairytale.
There is a concrete path through the park, which is not new, but we did not find any particular bumps.
There are also pleasant rest areas with tables in the park, but unfortunately not all of them are wheelchair accessible, or the tables are not accessible to wheelchair users.
You can follow the story on the large boards along the road, which have the story in both English and Hungarian. For the visually impaired, a QR code in the bottom right-hand corner of each board will help you access the audio book, where all the story parts are also excellent to listen to.
Most of the park is wheelchair accessible, and we tested both manual and electric versions. However, some installations and sometimes even big boards are not always accessible by wheelchair. Sometimes there are bumpy dirt roads, sometimes small gravel paths. The "lantern", the "fairies' dancing place" and the "throne room" are not accessible without any obstacles, due to the mentioned bumpy dirt paths and steps. However, the biggest attraction, a wooden giant lying on the ground, was not a problem for us, and we were able to see it up close in a wheelchair. It's worth rolling all the way to the end of the road, past the stone benches, where the ground is almost flat, with hardly any uphill. You may need some help with a manual wheelchair to get around the giant, as the mulches can spin the wheels here.
Visitors with prams were also interviewed, and in some places they had similar difficulties.
It was especially nice to see that the whole area of the Fairytale Forest is pleasantly cool thanks to the trees. It's worth taking a good look everywhere, and even looking up, because even the trees have surprises!
There is no snack bar in the park, but we found a wooden horn-cake kiosk in front of the entrance.
The toilets were provided by the mobile toilets in the car park, and we were delighted to find that one of the two toilets was barrier-free! We tested this one too, it is easy to turn around in an electric wheelchair, the door can be opened by itself and access was no problem. The thing to be aware of: there are no suitable handholds around the toilet seat, and no disinfection or hand-washing facilities.
Website:
The website is not very informative at the moment, with a short text, an audio book about the stations and a description of how to get there. It is only available in Hungarian. For the visually impaired, the audio book is a great help, as it reads out the story of each station. However, this does not work by clicking on the stations, only by clicking on the "A könyv/The book" button at the top of the website. As this does not include the information that it is an audiobook to help those who cannot see, we strongly recommend that it is clearly labelled. Apart from this, the website is accessible and can be used by people with mobility impairments too.
The website also offers a virtual walk-through: https://meseerdo.biokom.hu/virtualis-seta/
Getting there:
by buses 34, 34Y and 35 from the Main Railway Station. Get off at the "Dömörkapu" stop. The bus stop is not barrier-free, but there is a dirt road that allows you to roll down to the road. The buses are accessible. The journey time is approximately half an hour.
From the bus stop, the entrance is accessible via the road, which takes 2-3 minutes.
by car, up the Hunyadi road, on a somewhat serpentine road (but this is to be expected on the Mecsek Hill), passing the Pécs Zoo to the Dömörkapu parking lot. It is about 15 minutes by car. The parking lot is flat concrete, you can park quite close to the entrance. There is no signposted barrier-free parking.
Our suggestions for improvement have been reported to the relevant authorities. They promise to look into ways of improving the accessibility of the Fairytale Park. Thank you in advance for your kind attitude!
Location
Hilda
We had a nice time here. I enjoyed the visit with my friends, even though facing the above-mentioned barriers. The attractions are very inviting – and if you are not into fairy tales, it is still a nice park, where you can spend time with friends, kids, dogs, or do your daily jog.