Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Margert Island with its extra stairs

■ The stairway of European champions

Ambling in a southerly direction from Bodor's fountain, we will soon catch a glimpse of the most conspicuous landmark of the island, the Water Tower standing tall next to the Open-Air Theatre. It can be seen from afar that there is a set of stairs in the central newel shaft climbing up to the level beneath the reservoir occupied by an exhibition hall today. The spiral stairs starting up from here - and leading to the huge water basin - are not open to the public yet so we have to settle for the panoramic view of Buda opening up from this intermediate storey. The 66-metre high reinforced concrete tower was built in 1911 to static drawings by Technical University Professor Szilárd Zielinszki and artistic designs by Rezső Ray Jr. The lower level of the basin is at a height of 33 metres and used to hold 600 cubic metres of water primarily to provide for the island. Housed in the tower now is a visitor’s centre for the conservation of the environment, while the former reservoir awaits re-utilisation. In World War 11 a machine-gun nest was set up at the top of the tower. Today the nest is used as a resting place by hordes of the city’s pigeons.

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