When: December 1 to December 23, 2022, 16-16:30 hrs
Where: Charles Bridge, Prague
Details: Every day after four o’clock in the afternoon, during Advent, tourists and locals can meet the lamplighter on Charles Bridge.
He goes from lamp to lamp on one side of the bridge and then to the other side to light the historical gas street lighting with a burning wick on a long pole. His route begins at the Old Town Bridge Tower and continues to the Lesser Town and back.
Dressed in medieval clothes, the lamplighter explains how to light the lamp to tourists who want to help him!
In Prague, lighting gas began to be used for public lighting from mid-September 1847 with the commissioning of the Karlínská plynárny. Gas light was also used in Prague’s parks, gardens, waterfronts and islands. In Bohemia and Moravia, gas light lasted the longest in the old parts of Prague. As late as 1940, more than 9,000 gas lamps illuminated the streets and squares of Prague, the most in Prague’s history. At the end of April 1985, the eight-beam masts on Hradčanské náměstí and in Loretánské street were the last to be converted from gas to electricity.
Prague is perhaps the only city in the world to have a bridge lit by gas lamps.