I Traveled To Hungary To Photograph This Stunning Abandoned Control Room

This semi-abandoned power station located in Budapest - Hungary is a true gem among industrial locations and was once Europe’s most advanced power station. The control room itself has been abandoned for quite some time, but most parts of the location are still in use providing power to Budapest.

The control room is located in a power station that’s over a 100 years old. As mentioned above the power station is semi-abandoned as most parts of it are still in use (privately owned). On a regular day it supplies Budapest with 60%
of the heating and hot water, and 4% of Hungary’s total energy supply also comes from this power station. The main gas supply to this power station comes from Russia through Ukraine. In case it gets shut off, for whatever reason, the station has a liquid fuel-oil reserve on-site that can last for eight days.

In its early days the station was actually the first boiler house, first electricity supplier of the area and Europe’s first electricity exchange.

The most precious feature of the station is the amazing art-deco control room with a huge glass ceiling, which has been shut down around 2005. It has been designed by two architects around 1927 by Kálmán Reichl and Virgil Borbíro, and was constructed within 2 years. The control room is protected by Hungarian law shielding it from ever being torn down. Unfortunately, this also means the control isn’t being touched at all, thus also not being restored. The box-building, that looks like a small house, was actually built as a shelter for the workers in case the station would be bombed during WW II. That didn’t happen.

Nowadays the control room, and the other old parts of the station that are no longer in use, are often used in films and music videos. The most recent example I remember noticing the control room in is the movie ‘Spy‘, with Melissa McCarthy.

More info: romanrobroek.nl