Szablyár Péter: Sky-high - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2007)

Some special Towers

ln 1950 ownership of the tower, together with the island's water supply system, was transferred to the Budapest Waterworks, which adopted the image of the tower as its emblem. Part of the water welling up on the island was conducted into the city's mains; later, however, increased water pressures in the system made the tower superfluous. The structure came under official protection as a historical monument to be used as an exhibition hall in recent years, but the reservoir has remained out of use, which is why hundreds of pigeons moved into its empty spaces. By way of a spiral staircase installed in the axis of the tower, one can climb up to the area underneath the reservoir affording a fine view of the surrounding landscape. From here the stairs lead to the reservoir and then on to the machine-gun nest at the very top. (Before World War II, covered firing positions were set up at various points of Budapest.) It is regrettable that this monument of great architectural and industrial significance has not been given a worthy function.

SOME SPECIAL TOWERS

The first fire tower in the town of Pest — the Town Hall Tower

Behind today’s Inner City Parish Church in the place of the Pious Fathers' Secondary School, was the Pest Town Hall, which was begun in 1702. In 1767-68 the one-storey building with a Baroque tower received an extra floor, to be given a second floor, designed by József Hild in 1842—47 and yet another one in 1863. The square-based building had a plain appearance with a single row of columns covering the square-side front. Topping the columns were eleven nine-foot (almost three meter) tall allegorical statues sculpted by Ferenc Uhrl and Mihály Bauer. Jutting out of the roof-surface in the middle of the facade was a quadrangular clock-tower; on the second floor a balcony running round the tower was added to it. The square in front was then called Town Hall (and later Main) Square. The death warrant of Pest’s only Empire-style building was signed when Elisabeth Bridge was designed and the characteristic, turreted Town Hall was demolished as construction of the bridge's foot on the Pest side began.

The tower played an important part in the rapid growth of the town’s fire-fighting system. The proliferation of gristmills (Haggenmacher Mill —1873; Pest Bakers’

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