Molnár József - Szilas Péter: Night Lights - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)

The siege of Budapest destroyed the city’s decorative floodlights, too. Reconstruction, albeit on a small scale and motivated by political considerations, was started as early as 1945 with the floodlighting of Soviet military monuments. These were, as a rule, six to eight metre tall obelisks in Szabadság tér, Molotov (today Vigadó) tér, and elsewhere. The Liberation Monument, erected on the top of Gellért Hill, was first provided with decorative lighting in 1947.

In 1948 Hungary celebrated the centenary of the War of Independence against Austria. It was for that occasion that such previously floodlit monuments as Vajda- hunyad Castle, the Parliament Buildings and the Millenary Monument were temporarily illuminated, but powerful lamps were directed at the National Museum and the statue of Lajos Kossuth, too. By 1949 the Lánchíd had been completely rebuilt, and its floodlighting, with the brightest lights on the gateways, was also restored. The graceful arc of the bridge was not yet emphasised.

Floodlighting in the fifties reflected the economic and political views prevalent in the period. Accordingly, it was the party headquarters in Jászai Mari tér, followed by each Soviet monument, that received floodlighting. The most significant job completed in the period was the reconstruction of the lights illuminating the Fishermen’s Bastion, but before the decade was out, the floodlighting of the buildings lit before the war-the Parliament Buildings, Vajdahunyad Castle, and the Millenary Monument-was also gradually finished.

In the late sixties the halogen floodlight was developed, and a wider variety of lighting materials also became available. Institutes and companies other than the Electricity Works became involved in designing and installing decorative floodlight systems. As a result, plans were made for the illumination of the Danube embankment, and the Clniversities of Technology and of Economics, as well as the Mátyás Church were provided with floodlight systems. It was as part of this project that by the end of the sixties there were 31 floodlit buildings and monuments to enhance the beauty of the city. In the seventies not only further sites were included in the project, but the reconstruction of existing floodlighting systems was also carried out. Now there were 72 floodlit buildings, which all contributed to the overall effect of the city’s night-time panorama.

THE REBIRTH OF DECORATIVE LIGHTING

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