Budapest?s City Park is reputed to have been the world?s first public park open to all. In 1808 the Emperor ordered a Hungarian ?National Garden? to be laid out, including the planting of seven thousand trees. Today?s City Park contains amusement areas, sports grounds, foot and cycle paths, as well as the hundred-year old Széchenyi Thermal Baths (Pest?s first), popular for swimming, relaxation and treatments.
There is also the Transport Museum, containing rare model locomotives, the Petőfi Hall, home to rock concerts, and at weekends one of the city?s most interesting flea markets, where goods on sale range from interesting old books and antique painted plates to valuable old toys. In summer there is boating on City Park Lake. In winter, it is transformed into Central Europe?s largest artificial skating rink.
On the shore of City Park Lake stands Vajdahunyad Castle. The first version of this was a wooden edifice constructed for the 1896 Millennium celebrations to a mix of designs in order to show characteristic elements of architectural styles from different parts of Hungary. This giant ?model? was so successful that after it was taken down it was rebuilt out of stone. It later became home to the Agricultural Museum, which also contains one of the world?s largest trophy collections.
Budapest Zoo is a pleasant day out for all the family. It first opened in 1866 and has in the last decade undergone significant modernisation. Some of its buildings are particularly fine examples of Hungarian art nouveau. Five hundred types of animal and 4,000 different plants live within its 250 acres.
Spectacles and curios were already begin paraded in the City Park in the middle of the nineteenth century, and travelling circuses regularly set up their big top here. Budapest?s own permanent circus settled here in 1891.
The adjacent Fun Fair is a real meeting of antique and state of the art technology. There are gentle rides on the Ferris wheels and, for the brave, there are fast, spinning, hair-raising rides on the roller-coasters. The hundred year-old merry go round, recently awarded the European Nostra Prize, and the two-thirds of a mile-long wooden framed switchback with nine peaks (now a listed monument) have a charming old-world atmosphere to them. There is an exhibition about the history of the Fun Fair in the departure building.
ikonnal bővítheti túráját.
