Prague The Lamp-lighter on the Charles Bridge

(Source: 699pic.com)

Also this year, you will have a chance to meet a uniformed lamp-lighter on the Charles Bridge. Approximately around 4. p.m. he will begin to lit the historical gas lighting with a burning wick on a long rod nearby the Old Town Bridge Tower. Then, he will continue in the Lesser Town direction and return back.

Nowadays, the gas lights operate automatically, Advent is the only time in the year when the gas lamps are lit up by a lamplighter.

Street lighting in Prague dates back to 1847, which is the year when the first gas lamps were lit in this city. By 1940, nearly 9,000 gas lamps cast their bluish glow on the city. Gas lighting was used in Prague till 1985, when the eight branched cast-iron lamps on Hradčanské square and in Loretánská street were converted for electric light.

However 2002 saw the return of gaslight to the city’s most historic areas. In 2010, gas lamps were placed on Charles Bridge, which is the only gas lit bridge in the world.

Nowadays, you can admire romantic gas lighting on the whole Royal Route, from Powder Gate to Hradčanské square.

Date: Sat 1. 12. 2018 – Sun 23. 12. 2018

Location: Charles Bridge

(Source: 699pic.com)

(Source: 699pic.com)