The country’s most exciting and prestigious nature photography competition encourages photographers to go out into the nature and capture the diverse wildlife and wild landscapes of our national parks. Not only the creators of the images themselves, but also the viewers of them can get to know the natural world better as photos open a window to the natural wonders of our country for all of us.
The photographers of the competition competed for almost a year, during which they presented the best of their work to the professional jury in order to be ranked at the top of the photographer ranking list. The professional jury members evaluated the images, including world-renowned photojournalist Britta Jaschinski, Tamás Vitray Jr., Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic Hungary, nature photographers Bence Máté, Tibor Litauszki, Attila Szilágyi and László Suhadya, and nature filmmaker Zsolt Marcell Tóth.
Magical Hungary awards the photographer who achieved the most outstanding result of the season with the „Hungarian Nature Photography Grand Prize” which is embodied by the Golden Crane statue. A wonderful photo album and a large exhibition material were made from the most beautiful images of the competition what the public can admire at numerous prestigious exhibition venues across the country, but for the first time in the Biodome of the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden in 2025.
The exhibition of the most beautiful images of the competition presents 222 images by 66 artists in 10 spatial installations. The portfolio of the first three winners of the Grand Prize will be given a prominent place in the exhibition and another 30 of their works will also be displayed on canvas. Nature photography enthusiasts can also see the images of the winners of the various competition categories at the exhibition and they can get to know the magical natural world of our country’s ten national parks through a representative selection: beautiful landscapes, peaceful and tense moments of the everyday life of animals, and artistic depictions of a world invisible to the naked eye.
The Magical Hungary Nature Photography Exhibition will be open from February 28 to March 30, 2025, from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Sunday through Thursday, and from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Fridays, Saturdays, and the exhibition’s final day. To ensure enough time to explore the exhibition, we recommend starting your visit at least one hour before closing. Onsite ticket sales will also close one hour before the exhibition closes each evening.
The Magical Hungary Nature Photography Exhibition takes place at the Biodome which is part of the Zoo. However, the entrance is not at the usual Zoo gates but near the Hermina Road end of Állatkerti körút, at Állatkerti körút 16. Tickets can be purchased online through the Zoo’s official ticketing website or onsite during the exhibition period from 10:00 AM until one hour before closing.
The Biodome is best reached by public Transport:
Please visit the Budapest Public Transport Center (BKK) website for more details on public transport.
If you arrive by car you can use the Parkoló Zoona parking lot, located to the right of the Biodome entrance, or the paid parking spaces on surrounding streets. More parking information is available on the official website.
The visitor center of the Biodome, which hosts the exhibition, can accommodate a maximum of 500 visitors at the same time. While this is a generous capacity, if the number of visitors inside reaches this limit, further entry will only be allowed at the pace of exiting visitors. Priority entry will be given to those who have purchased their tickets in advance, rather than at the door right before entry.
We primarily recommend purchasing tickets through the Zoo’s online ticketing platform, where you can pay with a bank card or SZÉP card. Those who would like to purchase tickets onsite can do so during the opening hours of Magical Hungary Nature Photography Exhibition until one hour before closing, using the KIOSK machine at the entrance of the Biodóm. The machine accepts bank cards, SZÉP cards and cash payments.
If you wish to buy tickets before the exhibition opens, you can use the KIOSK ticket machines located at the Zoo’s ticket offices. Tickets must be used by March 30, 2025. Tickets cannot be refunded. Zoo membership passes and tickets for general zoo visits are not valid for entry to te exhibition. Various discounts are available for different groups of visitors, such as children, students, seniors over 65, and groups of 10 or more people. Apart from the advertised discounts, no additional reductions are available for the event.
The program will continue even in case of rain. The exhibition will be closed in the event of extreme weather conditions or a prolonged power outage. The interested parties will be notified of this on our official online platforms by 9 am.
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