“Treetop Path Without Trees: The Controversial Attraction in Nyírmártonfalva”

The small town of Nyírmártonfalva, just under 30 kilometers from Debrecen, has a new attraction that is now nationally known: the treetop path without trees. Like the Hungarian investigative portal Transparent reports, the municipality received the equivalent of around 160,000 euros in EU funding for the project, which, in addition to the “treetop path”, also includes a playground and picnic area. Actually, the footbridge should lead through a small forest at a height of a few meters. But that was cut down during the construction of the boardwalk last year.

The mayor of Nyírmártonfalva told the Hungarian television station that the grove had to be cleared to finance the construction of the treetop path ATV. “When we applied for the funds, there was also a forest here,” says Mihály Filemon, who is a member of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, and: “It wasn’t specified anywhere how high the forest had to be.” He blamed Brussels for the situation. There it took too long to process the applications that had already been submitted “end of 2017, beginning of 2018”. In the past four years, however, lack of money has persuaded the community to cut down the grove and sell the wood in order to be able to afford this investment.

Now there is a long wooden frame in a field and offers a maximum view of a few tree stumps. No wonder the whole story has caused a lot of ridicule and malice on the internet. That’s not a planning mistake, but art, more precisely: land art, joked transparent, the mayor a misunderstood genius. The Satire Party Two-tailed dog party exclaimed a wooden scaffolding on the first treetop path in Budapest, after all there was no trace of treetops there either. Others used scenes from the film Jurassic Park to express their astonishment.