© Shoobner
The Timewheel is eight metres in diameter, contains seven tons of sand and is the largest hourglass in Europe. Even though you can see Budapest's Timewheel at any time, the best occasion comes on December 31st. Only once a year, a team of four people resets the flow of glass particles for another year. It takes about an hour to rotate the Timewheel using thick steel cables.
This installation is symbolic as it stands on the same place where a giant statue of Lenin used to be. The Timewheel commemorates Hungary's inclusion into the European Union. Its timing is kept perfectly with the help of a computerized system so that tiny pieces of glass fall evenly from the upper to lower glass reservoirs.
