Zeidler Miklós: Sporting Spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2000)
When the grand jump was rebuilt in 1955, its height was considerably raised, and in 1958 its surface was given a sliding layer. National jumping championships were held here for a long time until the jump had to be pulled down because it was deemed hazardous. The cradle of flying in Hungary was rocked in Pest, on the Rákos Meadow, where plane and pilot were faced by no greater risk than being unable to lift off. Buda came into fashion when pilots became interested in wind-gliding. The wind and hang gliders of Budapest still prefer the Hármashatár Hill and the slopes of Óbuda. Motorists were also quick to discover the sporting potentials of Buda’s steep and winding roads that put car and driver to the test at each turn. Internationally recognised races as well as long-distance tours and rallies were held on Sváb Hill, Gugger Hill and Hármashatár Hill from the second half of the 1920s. The first mountain races for motor-bikes on Sváb Hill were held in 1920, after which János Hill and its environs were also tested for the same purpose. By now the area has largely been taken over by bikers training and competing here: road-racers keep to the asphalt roads of Hármashatár Hill and János Hill, while mountain and downhill bikers will race on every possible, and impossible, slope. Members of the Hungarian Golf Club were also attracted to the varied terrain, the beauty and isolation of the natural environment of this hilly region. The first golf course of Budapest was built in 1910 on Sváb Hill over an area of about 90 acres lying to the west of Hegyhát utca. The course no longer exists; it was closed down after World War II, its territory to be expropriated for the construction of the Pioneer Railway, though the memory of the course lives on in the name of a nearby street called Golfpálya utca (Golf-course street). To have a sense of how beautifully situated the course must have been, all one has to do is walk along or take a ride on the stretch of the Children’s Railway between the Széchenyi Hill and Normafa Stations. Óbuda The two extant amphitheatres in Aquincum, together with the remains of a Roman bathing culture well12
