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

The history of public lighting in Budapest can be traced back almost two hundred years. From the floating wick to the sodium lamp several sources of energy and types of device have been utilised during these two centuries. It is an interesting peculiarity of this evolution that while the oil wick, the kerosene lamp, and then the gas light was each quick to supersede its predecessor, public lighting by electricity took decades to gain ascendancy. Nothing illustrates how keen this competition was than the survival, alongside some 230,000 electric lights, of 122 gas lamps to this day-a remarkable fact even if these old-timers only serve nostalgic purposes.

“...SO THAT GENTLEMEN CAN SAFELY RETURN HOME AT NIGHT.”

The beginnings of street lighting were marked by beacons lit at lookout posts. The first crude lamp shades were meant to protect the flame from the wind. What can be seen as the true predecessor of public lighting as we know it today was first introduced in Paris in 1558, and the appearance of floating wicks in the street can be dated to 1569. How did all this take place in Hungary?

In 1777 Maria Theresa decreed that the University of Nagyszombat should be moved to Buda, which city thus made the first step towards regaining its former character as the country’s capital. It was as part of this far- reaching process of reforms that lamp-posts were erected in the streets “so that gentlemen can safely return home at night.” The expenses were covered by the municipality. Only a week after the formal opening ceremony of the university on 3 November in the same year, the streets of the capital were already lit by rape- seed oil lamps. Some time later, the university was relocated by Emperor Joseph to Pest, where street lamps were lit for the first time thirteen years after those in Buda. Here in Pest, however, it was not only the royal will but the increasing demands of the city’s commerce and its economic strength that helped progress advance.

The question of who should foot the bill for public lighting was just as important as it is today. After much wrangling, the county’s Lord Lieutenant granted the municipality leave that they should levy a three-penny tax on every barrel of wine sold in the city, which revenue was to be spent on public lighting.

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