City Park & Beyond - Budapest - page 322

Having a close call with one Great Master after another at the rich Museum of Fine

Arts .

Strolling City Park and then relaxing with an alfresco beer at Pántlika or Kertem .

Reaching City Park on the toy-like M1 metro , Continental Europe's first underground
train.

Explore: City Park & Beyond
Stately Andrássy út ends at Heroes' Sq (Hősök tere), which more or less forms the entrance
to City Park (Városliget). City Park is Pest's green lung, an open space measuring almost
exactly a square kilometre that hosted most of the events during Hungary's 1000th-an-
niversary celebrations in 1896. And while it may not compete with the Buda Hills as an es-
capist's destination, there are more than enough activities and attractions to keep everyone
happy and entertained.
The park area was originally marshland and served for a time as a royal hunting ground.
Leopold I (Lipót; r 1658-1705) gave it to the city of Pest, but it was not drained and planted
for another half-century. The arrangement you see today dates from the late 19th century,
when the angol park (English park), an idealised view of controlled nature, was all the rage
throughout Europe. The park's green spaces contain a large number of both exotic and local
trees (largely maple, oak and beech), which attract up to 100 bird species.
Most of the museums, galleries and important statues and monuments lie to the south of
XIV Kós Károly sétány, the path that runs east-west just below the top third of the park.
Activities and attractions of a less cerebral nature - the Capital Circus of Budapest, Bud-
apest Zoo and the Széchenyi Baths - are to the north.

Local Life

Eating Most locals wouldn't consider dining in the evening at pricey Gundel, but come
Sunday and the punters arrive in droves for its excellent-value buffet.

Architecture The neighbourhoods south and east of the park are happy hunting grounds
for some of the capital's grandest Art Nouveau buildings.

Sport In winter the City Park Ice-Skating Rink attracts not just casual skaters but also afi-
cionados of bandy, a sport with its own rules alternatively known as Russian hockey.