Molnár József - Szilas Péter: Night Lights - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)
vapour lamps to light the capital’s new Erzsébet Bridge, opened in 1964, were mounted in custom designed, graciously arching glass lamp units. The so-called “light axis” which connects the Buda side of Erzsébet Bridge and Baross tér, and the period lighting of the Castle district are two installations of public lighting from the 1960’s which have been determining features of the city-scape to this day. Based on the consensus of architects, art historians and lighting experts, it was decided that the newly installed street lighting was to be made up of modem replicas of the original gas candelabra and wall brackets. An interesting initiative of the 1960’s was the erection of a lamp post in Erzsébet tér, whose height at 40 metres is still a unique feature of the city’s public lighting. In the housing on top of the post several spotlights were encased with an aggregate capacity of 48 kw. Due to later technological development, the energy used by these lamps has been reduced to one fifth of the original figure. The increasing prevalence of electric lighting lead to the further dwindling of the number of gas lamps. The remaining specimens were kept in operation to enhance the atmosphere of such historic areas as the Zoo or Palota út and their environs. Let us hope that these relics of an earlier period in the history of technical development will survive the vicissitudes of further modernization. The yellow light The sodium lamp, a source of light more efficient than anything before, started its glorious international career in the late sixties. Its experimental introduction in Budapest began in the early seventies. In 1972 the first sodium light installation was put in place in Alkotmány utca, after which it was the Lánchíd and the Tunnel that were illuminated by the yellow light. A characteristic feature of the way public lighting develops is the appearance of new technologies and devices before their predecessors gain much currency. While several generations of lamps followed one another in the Inner City, no modernization was implemented on the outskirts. The growing number of lamps and the concomitant increase in operating costs soon made it obvious that public lighting with fibre bulbs was no long-term solution. That recognition was followed by the birth of the 40
