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

were allowed to be illuminated seven days a week between the beginning of June and the end of September, which permission was further restricted to Saturdays and Sundays in May and October. As the selected and operable systems accounted for seventy per cent of the entire capacity of floodlighting facilities, the energy saved was hardly measurable.

It so happened on one occasion in this period that Elizabeth Taylor, her husband and friends decided to celebrate the actress’ birthday in Budapest. As a special wish, she requested that the floodlights of the Fishermen’s Bastion and the Mátyás Church-both clearly visible across the Danube from the hotel where she was staying-should be turned on while she and her guests were having dinner. The offer which was interpreted by her private secretary to the people at the Electricity Works was anything but ungenerous. However, it was not for the Electricity Works to decide on such matters, and the leaders of the City Council were not impressed by the celebrity or her offer. Not only would they not allow the lights to be turned on for five minutes, but they expressly forbade any compliance with the request. Needless to say, the celebrated actress and her company had not the slightest idea why they were denied the treat for which the film star would have paid so magnanimously.

One of the consequences of the changes in the country’s political system in 1990 was the fact that the floodlighting of those building and statues which had been illuminated for political reasons was discontinued, and it is likely that the stately lighting of others which had been stopped for similar reasons-with the Basilica among them-will be restored. The first such lighting system to be completed was that of St. Imre Church in Bakáts tér.

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