From Pine Torch to Halogen and Illuminated Monuments (Portal of Prague)

Prague at night, like other big cities, is illuminated by thousands of lights, these days they illuminate streets, squares, embankments, houses and city features. Thousands of windows and advertising boards shine in Prague. Of course it hasn’t always been the case, and Prague’s public lighting has an interesting history.

By the end of the first millennium, when Prague was founded, the city was lit just with pine torches and fires. The very first public lighting is documented in Prague in the 14 ^th century. It was done in the Old Town with the help of fire that was lit in iron pans and maintained by a night watchman

Lighting was further developed during the reign of Emperor Rudolph II. In the end of the 16 ^th century he issued an order to light corner houses using iron baskets with fire inside that were fastened to their fronts. The very first lasting public lighting of Prague was put into operation in 1732 in a part of Royal Route. Between Charles Bridge and Celetna Street 121 posts with oil lanterns were placed. They were lit before nightfall and extinguished after sunrise. In the end of the 18 ^th century Prague had around 600 linseed oil lamps.

In 1824 started the production of Argand oil lamps with a cylindrical wick, glass cylinder and cylindrical movable chimney. In comparison to lamps from 1732 these lamps had greater lighting power. In the eighteen forties almost 1 100 of these lamps were shining in Prague. Public lighting polls were at those days painted red then since the 19 ^th century they had mostly blue colour.

In 1844 the era of gas lighting started in Prague. On the basis of the magistrate commission, the first gas installation was done by the company from Vratislav called “Company for installation and supply of gas lighting”. The company built a gasworks in Karlin and on 15 September 1847 streets of Prague were lit by 200 gas lamps in Karlin, Porici, Celetna Street, Old Town Square and Charles Street. Lighting went up to Charles Bridge; lamp posts were made out of cast iron and placed at distances from 25 to 29 metres. In the same year these lamps were also installed in Lesser Town. In 1864 the City council decided to build its own gasworks in Zizkov and by 1866 it supplied New Town with gas lighting, by 1867 Old Town, Lesser Town and Hradcany. By the end of 1871 almost 2 598 lamps were placed around Prague, 2 206 shone until midnight and 392 for the duration of the whole night. Designers of the installation were Architect A. Lindsbauer and Sculptor E. Wesel. Different types of lamps were placed at different locations, according to their importance and spaciousness. Their remains can be still found in some parts of Prague. In the end of 1872 and by the beginning of 1873 Prague had 16 eight armed, 9 four armed, 2 three armed and 344 simple lamp posts, 2072 suspended wall lamps and 18 private lamps. Altogether there were 2652 gas lights.

The first attempt to illuminated Prague with electricity was carried on 28 February 1883 and by nobody else but famous Frantisek Krizik who used arc-lamps in Old Town Square. Lights were used here, however, only for fourteen days. Krizik’s lamps fully made it later, in 1894, and this time it wasn’t just in Old Town Square but also in other parts of Prague. They were at first placed in the height 3 – 5 m for the convenience of pedestrians. Later on their height went up to 7 – 15 m which was enough to illuminate whole streets and that was the beginning of the so called traffic lighting.

In 1891 public lighting posts changed their colour to green. In 1918 this was changed again, this time to yellow and red which are the colours of Prague. At that time the streets of Prague were illuminated by about 7000 gas lamps.

In 1995 first fluorescent lamps were installed in Old Town Square. In 1960 a first discharge lamp appeared, in 1974 came high intensity sodium-vapour lamps and in the nineteen eighties mercury lamps.

Gas lamps were gradually replaced by electric lighting. Two last lamp posts at Hradcany Square and in Loretanska Street were electrified in 30th April 1985. According to statistics from 31st December 1987, Prague was at this time illuminated by 119 901 electric lamps, 7 144 fluorescent lamps, 1 725 light bulbs, 111 032 discharge lamps, 26 125 mercury, 84 907 sodium and 26 halogens.

Another boom in the lighting of Prague came after 1989 when streets became flooded by illuminated advertising. Gradually city lightning was also supplemented by illumination of some monuments and other objects.