An air balloon offering a panoramic view of Budapest 150 meters above the city will await visitors in a new tourist attraction in City Park from May 1, the chief executive of the company managing the project announced on Tuesday.
The balloon has been installed as part of the large-scale Liget revamp project in City Park, Benedek Gyorgyevics, CEO of the Városliget Zrt., told reporters at the site.
The panoramic balloon service will symbolize Budapest, and Hungary’s re-emerging tourism sector in the post-pandemic period,”
he said. For setting up the balloon’s base on the ground, a 10,000 sqm land area has been made into a green space, Gyorgyevics added. The site was formerly the place of a giant beer tent, and next to the hot air balloon launch site, a toilet and café were built.
Zoltán Závodszky, director-general of BallonKilátó (“BalloonViewpoint”), the company operating the balloon, said the French company modeled it after the one depicted by 19th-century painter Pál Szinyei Merse in his famous oil-canvas ‘Balloon.’
The balloon is fixed with cords to the ground and has been equipped to meet the highest safety standards, he said, adding that it is only operated under appropriate weather conditions. The balloon being fixed also means that it will act as a kind of open-air lift.
The balloon, in calm weather:
Featured image by Zoltán Balogh/MTI