In 2016, Hungary’s satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party “named” a park in Budapest after Bud Spencer, the late Italian actor, former swimmer, and water polo player, who is very popular in Hungary. At that time, the name change was not official, but now in 2021, the capital officially has its own park named after the beloved actor.
Bud Spencer’s popularity is clearly represented in Budapest since the city also has a statue of him on the Corvin Promenade. At the Filatorigát suburban train stop in Budapest, a graffiti artist, who calls himself TakerOne painted a huge portrait of him, which even the actor’s son and family have visited. However, in April 2017, someone painted the wall black, and the mural is not available anymore. The actor’s official website is available in Italian, English, German, and Hungarian. As Spencer’s most famous films are the ones with Terence Hill – who has the same popularity in Hungary – there is even a Spencer Hill Magic Band who plays songs by the Italian composers whose music is also heard in the films. There is an annual Hungarian Bud Spencer/Terence Hill Fan Festival in Budapest (with the aforementioned band playing there as well). Spencer’s two-part autobiography and his third book are all translated into Hungarian. To sum it up, Spencer and Hill are beloved by generations of Hungarians who have grown up watching their films on television. Both of them visited Hungary several times.
The Italian actor died in 2016, which is when the satirical party announced the name change for the park. As fighting scenes are a must in Spencer-Hill films, they “inaugurated” the park with a crowd fighting – which was not a serious fight at all. After this, the municipality launched a poll asking the residents if they actually wanted the park to be named after Spencer. 96% of them said yes – another sign of his popularity. However, according to law, public places can only be named after a person has passed away at least five years prior. This is why the park was only officially renamed this year.
In 2018, the Two-Tailed Dog Party also announced as a joke that they named the small “hill” in the park. After Terence Hill, of course.
Featured image: the mural of Bud Spencer at the Filatorigát suburban train stop in Budapest. In 2017, the wall was painted black and it is not available ever since. Photo by János Marjai/MTI
