Szablyár Péter: Sky-high - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2007)
Observation Towers
being made for another one to be called "Kelenföld Central". Commissioned with designs for this second power-generating unit was Kálmán Reichl, an architect who had made a name for himself with a number of important projects (the Óbuda Gasworks and Civil Servants’ Estate). After Reichl’s death in 1926, Virgil Borbíró (Bierbauer) took over. Designated as the plant’s site was the Lágymányos winter harbour, a location easily accessible by water and land alike, and one whose water supply was guaranteed by the proximity of the Danube. The selection of this outlying location and the north-westerly direction of the prevailing winds in the region made the pollution caused by the coal-fuelled plant more tolerable. The first unit of the plant was inaugurated in 1914. The rapid growth of power demand called for further units. The coal and then coal-dust fed furnaces were later converted to mazout-heating before natural gas — the increasingly widespread fuel of the age - appeared here, too. The recently installed gas-turbine plant generates the heat and electric energy used in the flats of the area at a fairly high degree of efficiency and at a reasonably low rate of pollution. Since 1952 the plant has played an essential part in feeding the district heating network of Budapest. OBSERVATION TOWERS The scarcity of its observation towers is unworthy of Budapest, but their number is slowly on the rise. The four tower-like observation points introduced here offer an amazing view of the city. The way by which each can be approached is in itself a memorable experience. Standing on the highest peak of Budapest’s hills, the János Hill observation tower is perhaps the best known of them all. There was another observation platform here, one made of timber in the 19th century when the hilltop was a popular tourist destination. In 1882 the spot was visited by the Empress Elizabeth, for whom the 23.5-metre high, neo-Romanesque tower of two terraced levels built on a circular basis to plans by Frigyes Schulek in 1908—10 was named. The uppermost platforms used to be inaccessible because of the two huge red stars on the building, which was thus dominated by that ubiquitous emblem of the later 20th century. Climbing the 101 stairs to the top, one can admire a peerless panorama in clear weather. Beckoning from afar are Cegléd and Dunaföldvár in the south-east, then further to the south Százhalombatta, Érd, Biatorbágy, Lake Velence, Székes- fehérvár and the slopes of the Vértes Hills and, in the west, the youngest rival: 62
