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One of the ugliest public spaces of Budapest will become an astonishing green park – VISUALS
The local government of Budapest’s 9th district, Ferencváros, will start the rebuilding project of the Ecseri Street M3 metro station, one of the ugliest public spaces in Budapest. It was hard to reach an agreement about the project because of the opposition to political debates culminating before the 9 June municipal elections.
One of the ugliest public spaces of Budapest
According to index.hu, the Ecseri Street M3 metro station is a symbol of how devastated some parts of Budapest’s rust belts are. Even though the metro underground station was renewed years ago, the surface area remained as it was in the Kádár era, giving no opportunity to people to stop and chat. The space favours cars with a huge parking lot. Furthermore, there are multiple dismantled pavilions and no green except for some devastated bushes.
Locals have been complaining about public safety and cleanliness for years, so the municipal council started public planning concerning the area. Mayor Krisztina Baranyi would have allocated money for the renewal, but his former leftist allies killed that initiative before the 9 June elections. The previous mayor of the district, Ferenc Gegesy, said that it was because of the high price. He said they could have spent HUF 100-200 million (EUR 246,000-492,000) on the project, but not HUF 2 billion (EUR 4.9 million) as Baranyi suggested. Leftist councillors of the municipal council did not vote for the initiative for the same reason.
In 2025, the new municipal council, in which Baranyi gained a majority following the 9 June elections, conducted a public procurement with unchanged technical content and got a price of HUF 400 million (EUR 985,000) lower than before. Therefore, the surface renewal of the M3 metro station will begin for HUF 1.6 billion (EUR 4 million). Interestingly, only 60% of the area belongs to Ferencváros, and 40% is in the ownership of the Budapest municipal council. However, they do not have the money to join the project.
First phase to end in April
Baranyi aims to create a public space accessible to everybody and enable people to meet with each other. First, they will close the parking lot and divert bus transport from the public space. As a result, the new park’s area will be greater than ever.
In the centre, there will be a fountain encircled by pavilions and a service centre. They will plant new trees and link the new area with the green area of the József Attila Quarter. Thanks to the development, the green spaces will increase by 38.6%. Additionally, they would like to create a two-way bike path.
The project’s execution is divided into five parts: the first will end on 29 April. The planning was done by the Garten Studio, which cooperated with the LAB5 architecture office.
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