Shortly after 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 27, the famed lamplighter of Prague lit up the gas lanterns on Charles Bridge
Jan Žákovec, the lamplighter, left Křížovnické náměstí and crosses one side of the bridge and then returns on the other side of the bridge.
The gas lighting in Prague lights up automatically, but during the Advent period several lanterns are always lit by a lantern lighter.
The romantic gas light also illuminates the entire historic Royal Route, a busy tourist route from the Powder Gate to Hradčanské Square. Both Prague citizens and visitors can admire the almost-forgotten beauty and charm of gas lamps.
You can meet the lamplighter every day at dusk (around 16:05 to 16:15) until 23 December.
Žákovec is vice president of the Lamplighters’ Guild and head of the Gasworks Museum. At 205 cm, he is the tallest lamplighter in the world.
The number of lamplighters can be counted on the fingers of one hand because today, the lamps light up automatically. “I know the lamplighters in Poland in Wroclaw, Brest in Belarus and in London … there are very few of us,” admits Žákovec with a smile.
“In 2002 they turned on the first nine lamps on Michalská Street, and there was a small celebration to commemorate the way the city used to be lit. There were representatives of various companies who‘d played a part, and I was there on behalf of the gasworks, to say something about gaslighting. When it came time to light the lamps, someone said: You’re the tallest, you light them. So that’s how I started.”
“There are gas lamps essentially all along the King’s “Royal Way”. That means its southern part from the Powder Tower to the Old Town Square, and from there to Karlova Street, while the second part leads along Rytířská Street to Uhelný Trh. In 2010, the Charles Bridge was converted, and today it’s still the only bridge in the world lit by gas lamps,” Žákovec says.
The rarest are three historical candelabras – an eight-branch lamp on Hradčanské Square (Castle Square), another eight-branch one on Loretánská Street, and a four-branch one on Dražické Square.
Prague has the 8th largest number of gas lights in the world. Berlin is first, with almost 30,000 lamps, then Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Boston, London, Baden-Baden.
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