The City Park ice rink in Budapest with the majestic Vajdahunyad Castle as a fairytale backdrop is located behind Heroes’ Square. In the second half of the 19th century, the pleasant surroundings of the City Park became a beloved place for relaxation, entertainment, and leisure activities. During the summer, boating and rowing were popular sports to play on City Park Lake and during the winter, skaters also appeared on the frozen lake. The city’s first ice rink was opened on the lake in 1870, just after the founding of the Pest Skating Association. Initially there was only a small wooden pavilion next to the rink, where visitors could warm up and put on their skates.
The ice rink was a huge success, with Budapesters of all ages and walks of life flocking to the City Park to glide on rosy-cheeked, wind-kissed faces and warm up in the cozy Ödön-designed building. Lechner in 1876. This new wooden structure had two wings for separate men’s and women’s dressing rooms and a common seating area. City Park’s ice skating rink quickly became a massive flirting arena: chaperones didn’t bother with the skates, so they couldn’t keep a close enough eye on the girls, and trips and falls gave way to 40 -50 weddings per season. Due to the popularity of the ice rink, this new pavilion also turned out to be too small, so Imre Francsek rebuilt a much larger hall and redesigned it in neo-baroque style in 1895. The 1944 bombing destroyed much of the structure, so it had to be closed for a while. After World War II, Ferenc Paulheim’s design was implemented to rebuild the damaged sports arena and in the fall of 1945 it was reopened.
After the complete renovation of the venue from 2008 to 2011, now everything is back on the agenda. City Park Ice Rink, the largest artificial ice rink in Europe and one of the oldest in the open air, has returned to our lives with an additional ice surface, proper benches and lockers inside the magnificent fully renovated neo-baroque clubhouse that offers skate rentals and a rink-side cafe. where you can shelter from the cold and warm up with a hot chocolate or savor a steaming mulled wine.
I’m sure the City Park Ice Rink is where most of us learned to skate, where no matter how clumsy you are, there’s always someone to try to pick you up off the ice and pick up your pieces and help keep you on your toes. your feet. There is no doubt that it has always been the perfect place for first and tenth dates as they glide across the ice closer to each other and have an excuse to touch, speeding up to listen to their favorite songs and slowing down and holding hands. of your date during the romantic. It has been the place where you could experience one of the greatest sensations in history: when you took off your skates, put on your boots, stood up and felt as if you were floating in the air.
