Vilniaus gatvių apšvietimas: raida ir techninės inovacijos

The residents of Vilnius, guests of the city and tourists were pleased with the idea to illuminate architectural monuments at night. In such a way the architectural details of the building and their rhythm can be stressed and highlighted in the space, the many-sidedness of the design can be revealed and the silhouette of the whole building highlighted in the background of the sky. Illumination can help to reveal the main focuses of various urban combinations and to create a certain mood. Generally, an inventive use of the light beam helps to reveal the subtleties of architecture which are almost invisible in the day time. Illumination of the architectural monuments is a kind of art and there are not many specialists of this sphere nowadays. One more innovation applied in Vilnius this year is ‘historic’ torches used to light up the streets of the old town. All the ideas on illumination of the city should be discussed and evaluated. The first reason for discussion is that illumination forms Vilnius architectural expressiveness during long autumn and winter evenings when the day shortens up to 7 hours and 14 minutes. The fact that Vilnius old town is in the list of UNESCO world culture heritage cannot be neglected. The means of illumination, so called ’small-scale architecture’, have to be in harmony with the whole ensemble. The type of the torch has to be the same epoch represented by the whole building The archival material and various publications are analyzed in the paper. Various types and forms of the torches and various constructions of firing, found in old photographs, lithographs and folk graphics, are represented. The main recent issues of illumination in Vilnius and other Lithuanian towns are revealed. The links between the past and present are represented. The chronology of the paper covers the period from the ancient times to our modern days. The main aim of the paper is to review the historical development of Vilnius street illumination and to represent its technological change and innovations since the ancient times. The objectives of the paper are: to analyse the technological change of illumination, starting with cressets which were changed into carried torches, gas and kerosene lamps finishing with electrical illumination; to collect historiography; to review various types and forms of the torches and various constructions of firing, found in old photographs, lithographs and folk graphics. Various torches and lamps are compared on the basis of their historical development and human attempts to modernise them. The newest comparative and technological methods were applied in the paper. The iconography analysis method was used while comparing the present and past of street illumination. The history of illumination starts in the times when the humankind learned to produce fire. The first means of illumination were fires and cressets. Candles and oil lamps appeared later. The exact date, when oil torches appeared in Vilnius, is not known. However, it is known that oil was used for illumination in the Middle Ages. In the 18th century hemp oil was used for Vilnius street illumination. In the 19th century refined oil was already used. The 19th century saw not only the technical advancement of torch construction but also the variety of torch forms. At the beginning of the century cylindrical torches prevailed, in the middle of the century the form became more complicated, e.g. tetrahedron, hexahedron or octahedron, at the end of the century the form was simplified mostly to round. Hexahedron torches of laconic and moderate forms would best suit the small streets where there are not any flamboyant palaces or expressive facades. Such streets and squares as S.Daukantas and Cathedral squares, the foot of Gediminas hill and Gediminas avenue as well as bridges require more sophisticated forms reminding gas torches. The main problem is the chaos of torch forms, colours, design and location. Even the well-planned and well-designed illumination, which is meant to reveal the beauty of the architecture, is overwhelmed by the abundance of various shining signboards, promotional screens and street lights. Unfortunately, all the signboards are designed relying on the principle of aggressive advertising which focuses on overwhelming the other ones and getting the attention of passers-by.