The Timewheel in ‘Procession Sq’ on the park’s western edge and directly behind the Palace of Art is the world’s largest hourglass, standing 8m high and weighing in at 60 tonnes. Unveiled on 1 May 2004 to commemorate Hungary’s entry into the EU, it provocatively stands a short distance from the parade grounds of Dózsa György út, where communist honchos once stood to watch May Day processions and where the 25m-tall statue of Joseph Stalin was pulled down by demonstrators on the first night of the 1956 Uprising. The ‘sand’ (actually grass granules) flows from the upper to lower chamber for one year, finishing exactly at midnight on New Year’s Eve, when the wheel is reset to begin its annual flow.
