Medická Záhrada is a compact city park that visitors cherish for its central location and green calm in midst of a bustling city. Among Instagrammers, it is increasingly perceived as a hip city spot for taking the perfect Insta shot.

1. Pink paradise in springtime
2. Popular drop-in park for casual city dwellers
3. On-trend spot for like-hungry Instagrammers

Springtime park

While each park attracts Instagrammers with the golden brown hues of autumn, Medická Záhrada stands out for its springtime pink.

Despite its central location and a variety of urban facilities, the park is very much associated with nature by its users. This appears in 47.5% of the posts, a rate comparable to that of Mestské Lesy at the foothills of the Little Carpathian mountain range¹.

A magnet for guests at this time of year are the blooming magnolias, setting the perfect backdrop for trendy photos. 25% of them, as spotted by Google algorithms, featured flowers, compared to just 5% of the pictures taken in Sad Janka Kráľa.

Raising popularity and shifting user patterns

The park’s spring seasonal peak is confirmed by the number of posts published each year in this period. Of course, the trend observed in 2018 and 2019 was disrupted the spring Covid-19 lockdown of the following year. Despite this, however, unlike the major park Sad Janka Kráľa in the centre of Bratislava, Medická Záhrada has not lost its appeal during the pandemic.

The increase in posting evident on the timeline during the 2020 holiday season can easily be explained by the lockdown and limited holiday opportunities for residents. Surprisingly, though, a massive spike in likes in 2020 was observed, which more than doubled in Medická Záhrada, while Sad Janka Kráľa experienced a steep decline of as much as 57%.

Hunting for likes and followers

Medická Záhrada seems to be the new emerging Instagram hotspot for users seeking the highest possible interaction on their posts. Visitors are particularly keen on using hashtags like #photooftheday and #slovakgirl to spread their pictures more effectively. This is proved by the remarkably high proportion of posts falling under the “self-promotion” (22.1%) and “photography” (17.6%) categories. Positivity and good vibes are known to be a popular mood on Instagram, which is also the case for Medická Záhrada and its high “happiness & love” category score (20.4%).

The dominating colours of pink and white featured in posts from the park seem to be aesthetically pleasing for users, judging from the overall colour scheme of posts. The Google Vision pattern recognition tool proves that no other park has a colour so prevailing and popular as Medická Záhrada. The traces of this vibrant colour scheme can even be found among the top 10 hashtags, namely #magnolia (4.) and #flower (8.).

Moreover, Instagrammers can choose from a variety of settings and props for their pictures. Apart from photoshoots, other factors such food & drink facilities and events strongly contribute to the park’s instagrammability. The high proportion of meticulously planned photos of coffee and food give the city park a cool and fashionable ambience on Instagram. Much of this is presumably bought at the chic café located directly in the city garden. The annual contemporary art festival “Biela Noc” further enhances Medická Záhrada’s potential as a magnet for trend-seeking inner city dwellers. Nevertheless, these factors play a relatively minor role in comparison to the tsunami of magnolia and self-promotion related hashtags shared since 2018.

Simple urban pleasures

Visitors perceive Medická Záhrada as perfectly suited for an occasional drop-in to enjoy some greenery amidst the bustling city. People’s motivations to visit are casual and spontaneous – they are as likely to come by on regular days as during the weekend. This is more balanced than in most other Bratislava parks, which tend to peak over the weekends. Another reason for this pattern is the park’s popularity among students from nearby schools, who come after school to enjoy the rest of the day with friends. This fact could partially explain the relatively low visitor numbers in summer.

Medická Záhrada is more about laid-back leisure than active recreation, such as jogging or cycling, the latter being actually prohibited in the park. Among the different leisure activities, popular ones seem to include yoga, picnics and going for walks. Consuming food and taking part in events are also popular ways of spending time at Medická Záhrada.

All of these activities are enjoyed in the company of close and loved ones, as proven by the park’s robust intersection of posts in the “happiness & love” and “friends & family” categories. Additionally, people on Instagram perceive it as remarkably kid-friendly in comparison to the other observed parks, which to some extent may be explained by the large playground area.

What else to know about Medická Záhrada

1. Enthusiastic readers love to swap their usual reading spot at home to a green alternative in Medická Záhrada.
2. Although the park is crammed with recreational and architectural infrastructure, including fountains and fancy benches, people seem to ignore it in their photographs.
3. This city park is the least friendly to dog owners. There are no pics of cute puppies because they are simply not allowed here.
4. Instagrammers are so keen to smile their biggest camera smile that Google Vision pattern recognition tool identifies “lips” in 11% of all posts.

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1. The data presented in this article is valid as of April 1, 2021. ↩︎