The Birthplace of Budapest’s Neon Lights

Have you ever wondered where the neon signs that defined Budapest’s cityscape in the 1970s were made?

A large number of them were produced at the Főneon, the company that manufactured neon signs. Founded in 1949, the factory operated at 37 Szövetség Street in Budapest’s 7th district, with a magnificent NEON sign adorning the building’s façade.

Photos: The exterior and interior of Főneon

In the 1950s, relatively few signs were produced here, including the Közért and Csemege logos. The 1956 Revolution, however, swept away even this small number of neon signs, and for several years there was, of course, no money to produce new ones.

In the 1960s, neon production began again, thanks to political consolidation, policies aimed at boosting tourism, and technological progress – in other words, the easier and cheaper availability of glass tubes, electrodes, and phosphor powders.

Photos: Repairing faulty neon signs (1980); repairing the neon sign of the Watchmakers’ Cooperative on Lenin Boulevard (1965)

This new momentum was further strengthened by the MSZMP’s neon-lighting programme, which Népszava described in 1969 as follows:

“The working committee made up of outstanding electrical experts, which drew up the programme, held a meeting on Friday afternoon at the headquarters of the Municipal Company for the Manufacture of Neon Installations. The 17-member committee defined a programme requiring one and a half years and 35 million forints, under which, by 4 April 1970, 60 large-scale neon light display installations would be erected on Belgrád rakpart, Felszabadulás tér, Kossuth Lajos utca, Petőfi Sándor utca, Rákóczi út and Baross tér, along with several hundred smaller neon advertisements in other parts of the capital.”

In another passage, the paper also wrote:

“As part of this large-scale plan aimed at creating a metropolitan neon illumination for Budapest, neon advertising worth 6 million forints will be installed on the rooftop structures of 13 residential buildings on Belgrád rakpart, while 13 of the 19 buildings on Baross tér will receive brightly glowing, colourful illuminated advertisements visible from afar. The committee also resolved to prepare a programme for illuminating Budapest’s 50 kilometres of main thoroughfares with neon within five years.”

Photos: Glass technician Aladár Rozsnyai making letters, Erika G. Holényi, graphic designer at Főneon, working on the graphic design for neon advertisements;

Work at Főneon soon intensified. Every stage of production inside the building was carefully coordinated: the forms first took shape on the drawing boards of designers and graphic artists, often based on existing logos. From these plans, the glassworkers bent the glass tubes, while the sheet-metal workers used them to create the patterns. The letters were formed from galvanized sheet metal, and the electricians were responsible for the high-voltage transformers. The designs also had to be approved by the Municipal Neon Committee, where architects, graphic designers and engineers decided whether a particular neon sign would fit into the cityscape.

Beyond manufacturing, the company was also responsible for the ongoing maintenance of existing signs. Technicians moved through the city inspecting and repairing neon advertisements – although partially lit signs that were not fixed in time often became objects of public amusement.

Photos: László Wittman painting sheet-metal letters (1959); glass technicians of the Neon and Metal Tube Cooperative working on the State Insurance Company advertisement at Oktogon

Főneon finally ceased operations in 1996, but its closure had been preceded by a long decline. As energy costs rose and orders decreased, far fewer neon signs were being produced by the 1980s, and the political transition after 1989 was, in effect, the final nail in the coffin of neon manufacturing in Hungary.

This process was not unique to Hungary – neon signs have gradually been replaced in major cities everywhere. Yet the fact that almost nothing remains of what was once a modern and thriving factory is, sadly, a very Hungarian story. Most of the documentation was discarded, the signs were dispersed, and most of the people who once worked there are no longer with us.

Source: index.hu, fenymuzeum.hu, pestbuda.hu

Photos: Fortepan, MTI Nemzeti Fotótár