Renovation of a historical entrance building helps bring new visitors

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Much shorter queues at the cashiers, quick access to the bathrooms after arrival, pleasant new areas in the shade surrounded by newly-planted trees and paved by natural stones, access to digital information, shiningly restored beautiful architecture, and the best quality cakes in the café make the Main Entrance project a great asset for visitors, who are immediately pleased when they reach the gate of the Zoo now.Professor Dr Miklós Persányi, Director General of Budapest Zoological and Botanical GardenBuilt in 1912 in the Art Nouveau style with an exotic twist, the entrance building greets visitors to the garden with statues of monkeys, gargoyles of polar bears and colourful mosaics supported by stone elephants. The building has been designated as a protected heritage building because of its historic and architectural interest.The listed building was badly in need of restoration as enamelled faience tiles on the roof were broken, stone animal statues were corroded and paving around the building was in poor condition. The renovation project was also an opportunity to convert a large part of the building, previously used as an accounting office, into a space for various visitor services.Providing new facilities for visitorsIn addition to the restoration of the historic building, the project also involved creating a visitors’ pavilion with an interactive information point which provides visitors with information about the garden as well as other nearby tourist attractions. A new café/bistro was also built, together with a new kitchen, bathrooms, a baby-changing room and storerooms.The project also involved building a terrace for the use of visitors, resurfacing the asphalt surface of surrounding areas and setting up an exhibition on the history of the Zoo and a nearby city park. An underground rainwater harvesting drainage system for watering the surrounding parkland was also established.Additionally, wifi internet facilities have been installed, an audio guide system in two languages has been set up and interpretive information boards installed for the benefit of visitors.Improving the visitor experienceTaken together with other improvements made to the Zoo recently through further ERDF-funded projects, it is hoped that visitor numbers will increase from the 928 000 recorded in 2010 to over 1 million a year by 2015.Prior to completion of the project, visitors passed through the entrance building in the time that it took them to buy entrance tickets. The Zoo is hoping that the improvements to and around the entrance building will encourage visitors to spend more time there: socialising, taking refreshments and visiting the new exhibition and information point.As a result of the project, the inner square of the entrance building is suitable for school groups to congregate in and can accommodate open air concerts for around a thousand people in summer evenings.The project has created two new full-time jobs.Total investment and EU fundingTotal investment for the project “Reconstruction of the Main Entrance Building of Budapest Zoological and Botanical Garden” is EUR 749 216, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 480 403 through the “Central Hungary” Operational Programme for the 2007-2013 programming period.