The local council of Ferencváros won a HUF 250 million grant for the renovation of Bakáts tér in the TÉR_KÖZ city rehabilitation tender announced by the Budapest local council in 2016, and the aim was to get a new main square worthy of Inner Ferencváros but to respect its traditions. When submitting the application, the local council also considered the possibility of renovating the church of St. Francis of Assisi and the church garden, designed by Miklós Ybl. The landscape architects of the Garten Studio completed their plans to build an area of about 20,000 square meters in 2018, but the program was interrupted. Only the renovation of the church was completed, from state funds.

Renovation of the square itself, after a long drag, began only in July 2021; As we wrote earlier , the renovation will replace the pavements in the square, significantly transform the parking lot and increase the proportion of green space. 

In front of the church there is a 14 meter diameter inlaid decoration (Photo: Both Balázs / pestbuda.hu) 

Although preparations for the renovation began more than five years earlier, after the 2019 elections, the new local council has decided to continue the program launched by the previous leadership, but to modify some of the plans and continue construction in line with the new ideas. The new planning program emphasized the need to strengthen the community nature of the space.

A stage will be set up for events in front of the church (Photo: Both Balázs / pestbuda.hu)

During the conversion, a seating and meeting area will be created behind the church. On the side of the school there will be street furniture, a bicycle storage room and a drinking fountain. Walking further to the other side we will find benches, chess tables and plant cassettes. There will be a narrow green lane on the side of the church and then there will be car parks on both sides.

The part in front of the church formally belongs to the church designed by Miklós Ybl. A 14-meter-diameter inlaid cladding will be placed here, which is still being built just in front of the church entrance. There are regular outdoor events in this area, so a stage will be set up here soon. 

It is planned that there will be almost 1850 square meters of green space in Bakáts Square (Photo: Both Balázs / pestbuda.hu)

While we were there, we could see that the professionals are currently working in the entire field, building pavements. New candelabras are installed, green areas are created. What was striking was the cobblestone surface that replaced the paved pavement of Bakáts Street. But road repair work is also being carried out in Bakáts Square as well as in Tompa Street. On the west side of the square were the small cubes and large cobblestones.

Small and large paving stones are placed in and around the square (Photo: Both Balázs / pestbuda.hu)

One of the essential elements of the investment is that Bakáts Street will become a pedestrian street on the section between the square and Lónyay Street. The traffic order in the square will change, so car traffic will be allowed only on the longitudinal sides of the square, and parking in the areas in front of and behind the church will cease.

The complete renovation and remodeling of the square is expected to be completed by early 2022.

The transformation of Bakáts Square will be completed in the beginning of 2022 (Photo: Both Balázs / pestbuda.hu)

Cover photo: The renovation of Bakáts square is in progress (Photo: Both Balázs / pestbuda.hu)