A mine of opportunities
A unique underground construction awaits resourceful patrons
MúzeumCafé 11.
In the future Balatonfűzfő may become noted for a museum and not because of its industry. Lack of space for a future museum or gallery is not at issue, since a several thousand square metre underground power station exists for the implementation of the plan. The question is why Balatonfűzfő could not have an arts venue when a museum, sports centre and entertainment venue operate in a huge gasometer in Oberhausen in the Ruhr region, which was earlier noted for its mining and the steel industry, or when in London the internationally famous Tate Modern was established in a former power station in the centre of the city. Árpád Bakonyi, CEO of Nitrokémia, believes that the possible utilisation of the unique industrial historic monument offers a wealth of opportunities. The power station, built at the beginning of the 20th century, represented the centre of the Nitrokémia chemical company which employed 8,000 people in its heyday. Besides the above mentioned cultural aim – museums and exhibition areas – the enormous halls of the underground power plant could also be utilized in other ways, for instance, they could operate as warehouses or as wine cellars, since the temperature is at a constant 14-15ºC. Needless to say, these ideas are currently only on paper. There are two underground levels with four halls of 2,500 square metres each with varying interior height. The halls are 8-10 metres high and the washrooms 3-4 metres. Ventilation is operated by shafts and the coal was delivered to the huge furnaces by so-called fireless steam locomotives through a tunnel more than half a kilometre long with a red stone surface. Machinery and furnaces used to crowd the enormous halls, which are now entirely empty and have excellent acoustics. In some places karst water seeps through very slowly and if the worst comes to the worst and the dreams come to nothing, then in a few hundred or thousand years Hungary will be able to boast of a nice stalactite cave. A section of the stairs has been changed since they were dangerous, but in many places the original steps remain. From both the architectural and engineering points of view the construction remains sound. The oval wall structure on the lower level makes you feel you are standing in a ship’s hold, in addition to which visitors can have very interesting visual experiences. The mosaic tiling of the floor is intact, although it has been in use since 1927. The power plant was finished once and for all when in the 1960s the price of oil began to plummet as compared to that of coal. So let’s use some imagination … “Dear Visitors! Guests with blue ribbons can see a retrospective multimedia show in sector A, those with silver ribbons can also listen to a compilation of Baroque composers’ works in the concert hall. Besides these two halls visitors with gold ribbons can view a temporary exhibition of 20th-century Hungarian cubist art on the lower level. Our technical-scientific exhibition hall presenting Chemical Centres in Hungary is open to all visitors, while in the neighbouring small hall there is a photographic display entitled Europe then and now.” This is an imagined, at present daring introduction from the distant or perhaps not so distant future. In order that this apparently Utopian idea could become a reality, in addition to the will a lot of money is, of course, required.