Porhászka László: The Danube Promenade - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)

Petőfi Well designed by László Wild

new replaced with ash trees. The few healthy trees, such as the robinias in the section towards the Chain Bridge and a Japanese acacia by Vigadó tér, which had survived the destruction, were not cut down, and the sycamores on Petőfi tér were also spared.

The reborn promenade was also enriched with some new works of art. To close the cast-stone covered esplanade on the south, László Wild designed a small ornamental fountain. The Petőfi Fountain, which evokes the style of neo-Classical architecture, was erected in 1983; its four basins hold the water splashing out of bronze spouts set in metal rosettes.

It was also Wild who, in 1984, designed two flagstaffs to stand on either side of the red granite obelisk on Vigadó tér. The ten-metre tall metal poles, topped with gilt finials and set into limestone pediments decorated with bronze laurel wreaths, were painted red, white and green, Hungary's national colours, to offset, decidedly if tactfully, the Soviet Memorial beside them.

The Hotel Duna Inter-Continental was greatly modernised in 1986. The southern section of the first-floor terrace was converted into an indoor facility with swimming

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