The construction of the community gardens and the renovation of the basketball court in Szent István Park will soon begin. The proposal called Community functions in the Szent István park was one of the winning ideas of the community budget announced by the capital among the ideas received by 31 January, 2022. The implementation will cost about HUF 50 million, according to the Budapest website presenting the ideas. The plans were made by Főkert. 

The basketball court in the Nagypark area, which is in poor condition, will be renovated and covered with a safe surface - read last week's post on Budapest City Hall's Facebook page. The community garden will be created in the Kispark part, this means the area between Pozsony út and Hollán Ernő utca, that is, here the corner plots that have been closed off with fences for many years will be opened to the public.

As we wrote earlier , Szent István Park, handed over in 1936, was initially called Rakovszky Park, later Lipótvárosi Park, and then received its current name in 1937. In the place of the beautiful ornamental garden, there was once a parquet factory, from which the Közmunkatánács created a modern part of the city: in 1928, they not only regulated the design of the park, but also prescribed a uniform facade design for the houses in the area.

 The Szent István park in 1940 (Photo: FSZEK Budapest Collection) 

The Szent István park still preserves its original structure, shaped like a funnel opening towards the Danube. There is also a playground, a dog run and a colorful flower bed enclosed in regular squares in the central area. Since 2010, a special rose garden has also been created, in each of the 1x1 meter beds different species of roses bloom thanks to the breeder Márk Gergely.

Flower beds in Szent István park (Photo: pestbuda.hu)

The park is a popular resting place for Budapest residents (Photo: Viczián Zsófia/pestbuda.hu)

As we have already reported , the St. István statue was not given a place in the Szent István park, even though the work wanted to be erected here, in place of the removed statue of György Lukács based on the decision of the Capital Assembly in 2017. The preparation of the area began in the fall of 2019, but the newly elected leadership of the capital stopped the work on the grounds that local civilians had initiated a review of the site. Finally, on 14 June, 2021, the mayor - using the extraordinary authorization introduced due to the epidemic situation - decided in one person that the statue of St. István will be erected in Kispest. Thus, the 2.5-meter high bronze statue of our founding king can be seen on Temple Square in the 19th district, instead of Szent István Park.

Source: Metropolitan Municipality, pestbuda.hu

Cover photo: There will be a community garden in Szent István park (Photo: Google Maps)