Hajós György: Heroes' Square - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)

Bridge across the City Park Lake

With the Millenary celebrations a new chapter was opened in the history of the district. Built on the southern side of the square but still flanked with trees, bushes, and other greenery on three sides, the Exhibition Hall had been erected by 1896. It was by the same date that the 82-metre long bridge, called Palatine Island Bridge at the time, had been built to reach Kós Károly sétány after spanning the City Park Lake with its three arches. The iron structure of the bridge was designed by an outstanding figure of Hungary’s iron and reinforced-con- crete architecture Szilárd Zielinski, professor at the University of Technology, while the ornamentation is the work of architects Flóris Korb and Kálmán Giergl (other works by them include the Academy of Music and the three immense palatial buildings on Ferenciek tere).

It was by the abutment of the bridge nearest the city where the main entrance to the Millenary Exhibition, called Pylon Gate, stood. The style of the structure was reminiscent of French Renaissance architecture. (The gate was erected by the reputable firm of builders Ödön and Marcel! Neuschloss to plans by Lajos [Jámbor] Frommer.) To the 18.5 metre tall pylons standing on either side of the abutment belonged two, 30-metre long, arched colonnades, each ending in a 10.5-metre pylon. The Neo-Baroque constructions featured escutcheons, applied

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