New free and fascinating Danube beach to open in Budapest? – PHOTOS, VIDEO

The Római Beach in Budapest, 3rd district, just 15 minutes away from the city centre, has everything to become a popular place to have a bath in the cool river during the hot summers. Though city leadership does not do anything to create a modern plage near the heart of the capital, some local NGOs did so. The result was amazing, and the area has all the prerequisites to become Europe’s best river beach. 

Previous Saturday, locals showed that they would really like to have more links with the river flowing through Budapest and to create a new free beach near the heart of the city – reported hvg.hu.

Two NGOs organized a one-day test bathing in the Római beach where the local government has already decided to build a free beach next year. Members of the two organizations

transformed a part of the plage into a beach where everybody could enjoy the cool water safely

in just 5 days. For example, they built a watchtower and placed a home-made buoy row in the river marking the territory where people can swim securely. Of course, the water police and the ambulance were both present during the test day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INPhKMZzrq8

According to hvg.hu, 369 said on Facebook that they will be there, but it is hard to tell exactly how many showed up but there were hundreds of people.

In fact, bathing in the Danube was forbidden in 1973 because its water became extremely polluted. However, the situation got much better since then,

today all results show that the water quality is excellent

and the Danube is appropriate for bathing. Even the last one, which was made in June when the Danube carried a lot of alluvium because of the summer floods, was excellent.

According to hvg.hu, there are other parts of the Danube in Budapest that are appropriate for creating a beach. For example, there is a part in Újpest (4th district), there is the Népsziget (People’s Island), but there are places suitable to transform into beaches in Budafok-Tétény (22nd district) and near the Közvágóhíd (9th district) where the government wanted to erect some buildings for the planned 2024 Budapest Summer Olympic Games. There was another place meeting the conditions near the Kopaszi Dam but since István Garancsi, an allegedly government-close entrepreneur, bought it to build residential and office buildings, it is inaccessible.

Hvg.hu says that the many people showing up on Saturday in the Római beach clearly signs the need for such free beaches in the city. However, the Budapest policy of both the government and the city leadership points to the exact opposite direction: they cut down the still existing groves and want to create buildings in the remaining green spots of the capital. The only exception is the decision of the 3rd district to create a free bathing place on the Római beach.

Budapest, Hungary. Photo: MTI

Budapest, Hungary. Photo: MTI

Budapest, Hungary. Photo: MTI

Budapest, Hungary. Photo: MTI

Budapest, Hungary. Photo: MTI

Source: hvg.hu