Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 2. (Budapest, 2007)

Abstracts

The general layout of gasworks consisted of blocks of buildings constructed in separate and independent units, arranged according to the production process. The central building was always the furnace, where gas for illumination was produced by the dry distillation of coal. Gas was then purified in purifying buildings, and its quantity was measured in meter houses. The biggest and most characteristic buildings were the gas containers. In fact, they were open-bottom metal bells floating in a pool of water, rising and sinking depending on the quantity of gas contained inside of them. The larger ones were composed of several metal drums assembled in a telescopic way that allowed for a greater modification of size. This adjustable structure was then fixed either to a braced metal framework or a cylinder-shaped, tower-like circular wall. In addition, the premises had to include workshops, warehouses, a separate building for the administration as well as a sufficiently large area for storing the coke produced and other by-products. Over the 19

th century, ten privately owned gasworks were constructed in Vienna, forming a belt around the centre. The earlier ones were built in the Romantic style, except for the first factory in Erdberg, which was built in the neoclassic style. The huge gas container also erected here in 1885 presented a remarkable technical achievement even by international standards. At the end of the 19

lh century, gasworks were built in the typical "factory style" of eclectic industrial architecture. The municipal gasworks of Simmering, opened in 1899, were no exception; they were one of the biggest and most significant set of buildings of their kind. Their emblematic structure, four big gas containers, has survived to become new attractions in Vienna after their renovation. Four privately owned gasworks were built in Budapest, two of which were located next to each other in the southern part of Pest. In Józsefváros, the first ones were erected in the city's eastern boundary; the group of romantic-style administrative buildings stand there to this day. New and bigger municipal gasworks were built in the northern part of Buda, in Óbuda between 1910 and 1913. Their most distinctive architectural feature was the set of buildings composed of four towers, representing an emblematic achievement of Hungarian industrial architecture. Many other structures have survived from the set of buildings built during the transitional period between eclecticism and modern industrial architecture, including two blocks of flats situated nearby the factory: the cottages of the officials, and the terraced houses of the workers. They have all been designated as historic monuments.