Timewheel

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Timewheel is a giant hourglass in Budapest, near City Park. It sits just to the right of Heroes’ Square and behind the Palace of Art (Műcsarnok), on the site where a Lenin statue once stood (now in Memento Park). Made of granite, steel, and glass, it weighs about 60 tons. The sand inside is glass grains and flows from the upper chamber to the lower one over a full year. When the sand runs out on New Year’s Eve, the Timewheel is turned 180 degrees so the flow can start again for the next year. Four people pull cables to rotate it, and the process takes about 45 minutes. It was unveiled on May 1, 2004, to celebrate Hungary joining the European Union. The Timewheel was designed by István Janáky, with construction by János Herner.