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The story of Hungary’s tallest building
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Hungary has several beautiful buildings including historical ones like the Buda Castle, the Castle of Gödöllő and the Firewatch Tower in Sopron. The country will also get new buildings which will shape Budapest’s look in the future. These projects are, for example, the Mol Tower, Puskás Ferenc Stadium and the Museum of Ethnography. Among our historical buildings, there is one which used to be Europe’s tallest one in the 20th century but is still the tallest in Hungary.
History
The Lakihegy Tower is a radio mast in the Hungarian town of Szigetszentmiklós (Pest County). The Blaw-Know-designed mast (the company which was a manufacturer of steel structures and construction equipment based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was built in 1933 and was the tallest structure in Europe at the time. The mast was built up to provide broadcast coverage for Hungary and to transmit radio station Budapest I which operated until 1977.
Hungary had several radio masts across the country as early as the 1910s and 1920s, but these structures were not enough to provide excellent radio broadcast. The idea and the perfect location of Lakihegy Tower were born somewhere in the 1920s. The mast’s structure was designed in the United States and took four years. Hungarian architect Pál Tantó transformed the plans to be suitable, with the natural features of Csepel Island taken into consideration (the type of ground, the strength of the wind, etc.). Finally, the construction of the mast started on the 1st of July 1933 which was overseen by Hungarian architect Károly Massányi.
Lakihegy Tower was presented to the public on the 2nd of December 1933. Former Hungarian president Gyula Gömbös’s speech on the opening ceremony was the first broadcast of the radio mast, on the radio station Budapest I. With a 120kW transmitter, the radio mast became the most modern one not only in Hungary but also on the continent. It also became the Hungarian Radio Corporation’s symbol.
