Lego Lion to Watch Over Chain Bridge in Budapest

A lion figure made of hundreds of thousands of Lego blocks were placed on Clark Ádám Square on Thursday morning, Budapest Transport Center (BKK) told the state news agency MTI.

They wrote that the lion is an important symbol for the people of Budapest, and the stone lions on the bridgehead of the Chain Bridge are also a popular attraction, which the capital's residents and tourists had to do without for a long time due to the renovation of the bridge. On October 18, work began to move the lions back to their original place on the Buda side of the bridge. However, the restored statues will only be visible later, as they remain in a closed area due to the construction work.

The Lego lion, built by using more than 850,000 bricks, will help the bridge's guardians, they added, noting that the new 1:1 scale of the stone lions is extremely detailed and looks just like the originals. The 5.8-meter-long, 1.7-meter-wide and 2.45-meter-high Lego sculpture weighs 2.8 tons.

The unusual lion was modelled and designed by the official Lego master builder Balázs Dóczy and took 560 hours to build in Budapest, with the participation of 80 people. It was noted that Balázs Dóczy is one of the 27 official Lego master builders in the world, and has been associated with several Hungarian landmarks and buildings built of bricks, including the Chain Bridge and the Music Academy. This Lego Lion is his largest Lego creation to date.

The original sculptures have been moved back to their granite foundations, and the pedestals will no longer be climbable, so they cannot be touched in the future. However, you can get up close to the lion built from Lego bricks and see every detail. The Lego lion on guard at Clark Adam Square is expected to be open to children and adults until the end of November 2022.