Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 2. (Budapest, 2007)
Abstracts
MIKLÓS MELEGA The Modernization Programme of a Medium-sized Provincial Town Szombathely, 1895-1902 In the Dualistic era, Szombathely experienced a remarkable trajectory of urban development. Its population increased fivefold between the mid-19 th century and World War I; the once small provincial town became the fifth largest in Transdanubia, functioning as a busy railway hub and as a commercial-industrial centre. By the end of the 19 lh century, increasing population density, deteriorating public health conditions, as well as residents' growing expectations of comfort and hygiene made it necessary to develop modern infrastructural institutions and public utilities. Until the 1890s, these services - gas-plant, electricity-plant - were established with private initiatives as shareholders' companies, because the town's leadership did not venture to construct public utilities. A radical shift in mentality was brought about by Gyula Éhen, who became mayor in 1895. An excellent theorist and pragmatic specialist, Ellen's principal objective was to improve public health conditions and create a modern Szombathely. In 1897, he published his reform ideas in a book titled "The Modern Town", which can be regarded as an overture to the Hungarian literature on urbanism. Under his leadership, the town deliberately undertook the construction of public utilities as municipal responsibilities. Ehen's activities as mayor expanded on earlier achievements to complete the town's infrastructural development. By the turn of the century, the public utilities network, constituting the basis of modern urban life, was fully developed in Szombathely: gas-powered and electric public lighting, public transportation - omnibuses and electric tramways -, water pipes and a canalization, as well as road pavement all added up to complex urban infrastructure that was unique in Hungary. By the beginning of the 20 th century, Szombathely had one of the best developed technical infrastructures of any Hungarian town. Its components, some of which are still in use today, were constructed according to the most advanced methods of contemporary engineering. Besides their high technical level, it was exemplary in that public utilities covered the entire area of the town, and that they were owned and operated by the municipality. This model-like infrastructural development also set an example for other Hungarian towns at the crossroads of modernization: the innovative activities of Szombathely influenced urban development across the entire Hungarian urban system.
