Lake Balaton’s special ‘Greek village’ demolished – this will be built in its place

The local government of Balatonfüred bought back the buildings of the so-called Greek village, which should have served as a party place in the beautiful lakeside town. However, it slowly became a wound in the townscape, so it is doomed to be demolished. Here is what the local council plans to build in its place.

Lake Balaton is one of the most famous tourist spots in Hungary, where hundreds of thousands of Hungarians go on their vacation to relax, drink great wines, enjoy the water and the sunshine and, of course, party. To this end was the Greek village of Balatonfüred built in the 1990s.

The project started in 1993, but it took extremely long to finish. Furthermore, it did not become a gold mine for the investors since the tourists remained less enthusiastic. It was a wound in the townscape.

Later, it became Annagora Park, Sundance Park and SunCity. However, it still wasn’t a success.

The town’s local government wanted to do something with the valuable territory, so they decided to buy it from its owners.

Read also:

• The 3 strangest Hungarian villages: seem like other far-away countries – Read more HERE
• Big cities in Hungary – 5 facts you may not know about Balatonfüred – PHOTOS and more in THIS article

According to economx.hu, they paid HUF 670 million (EUR 1.73 million) for the ‘Greek’ buildings. They could not agree with all of the owners, so court processes followed, and the owners lost one after the other. Thus, they got even less money than the local government would have paid them at the beginning.

Some owners bought their building in the 1990s for HUF 3.6 million (EUR 9286) but got only HUF 5 million (EUR 12,898) in 2024. Meanwhile, property prices grew 10-15-fold in the town.

István Bóka, the mayor of Balatonfüred, said they would like to create a public park in the territory. Based on the relevant local construction decree, buildings might be erected on only 10% of the territory. There, the local council would like to build a residential park.

HERE you may check out some photos about the ongoing work.

And here is a video of the ghost Greek village: