Uraniae — Observatory Branding Concept

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The csillagda, also called Uraniae (an obsolete word for observatory in Hungarian), was an observatory that only existed for a short period of 37 years on top of the most famous of hills, Gellért in Budapest. Uraniae was one of the nine Muses in Greek mythology, patroness of astronomy and astrology: hence the name of the observatory. The idea to build an observatory came in the early 19th century and Gellért Hill was selected to be the location of it eventually. Uraniae was located at the south end of the Citadel, on a piece of land granted by the city of Buda. It was built based on the architectural plans of Janos Pasquich, a mathematician-astronomer and Mihaly Pollack, one of the most well-known and celebrated architects of the age. The interior design and most of the tools were made by Munich-based Reichenbach Ltd.

Plan of the former observatory, Uraniae (Franz Hüppmann, 1813)

Georg Friedrich von Reichenbach (c.1825)

The observatory consisted of two dome-towers and the one main hall that served as a research centre. The inauguration ceremony took place on the 26th of October in 1815, however the building could not avoid its fate of destruction in the Battle of Buda (May 1849) during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849. The remaining ruins of the observatory were then destroyed in the so-called Bach-era to give place to a fortification, the Citadel (built btw. 1850-54).

Notebooks for Astronomical memos (below)

Fraunhofer spectroscope

During its 37 years of existence the ‘Csillagda’ was one of the most state-of-the-art observatories in Europe.

This short period provided rich material that were taken as a basis of the design and used in the visual layout. The graphics are created based on the descriptions of several astronomical and educational (mechanical observatories) tools, designs, all related to the Csillagda. Today the existence of an observatory on the top of that hill could not be justified due the light pollution around the city.