Budapest Zoo expansion project to start in February

Budapest, January 24 (MTI) – Budapest Zoo director Miklos Persanyi will symbolically receive the keys to an adjoining 6.5-hectare area that currently houses an amusement park and the zoo expansion project can begin in February, daily Nepszava said on Friday.

As a result of the expansion project, the zoo which currently occupies an area of 10.7 hectares will almost reach its original size of 18 hectares at the time of opening in 1866, the paper said.

Zoo spokesman Zoltan Hanga told Nepszava that over the years, the area of the zoo has been gradually shrinking when plots were disconnected to accommodate the amusement park, the circus and the Gundel Restaurant.

Some of the vintage features of the amusement park will be preserved after the expansion, including the merry-go-round which is more than a hundred years old and the wooden roller coaster. A large glasshouse is planned to be built to present the old fauna of the Pannon Sea.

The Budapest Zoo currently attracts around a million visitors a year, Hanga said.

Photo: Zoltan Bagosi/ www.zoobudapest.com

Source: http://hungarymatters.hu/