Balokány Park

The word "balokány" is of Turkish origin.

As this area used to be a swamp in the Turkish Age it is very likely that its name comes from the Turkish word “balikhane”, which means a place for fishes. For a long time it was a popular place to take a walk . In the 1930s an outdoor swimming pool was built alongside the park’s small lake. Some artistic ceramics from the Zsolnay Manufacture are still visible in the out-of-use pool. One of these is the Buffalo Fountain, which is the work of Miklós Ligeti and which was erected in 1935. Pepita, the central building of the Balokány Park, has been reconstructed. A 90 m2 community space has been created in its upper storey. The new building is a kind of bridge between the new buildings of the European Capital of Culture (Zsolnay District, Kodály Centre and Tudásközpont) as well as a symbolic bridge as it provides a home for several the civilian institutions of Pécs.