Gas lighting for the Crown: analysis of the use of gas lighting within the festivities to commemorate the Bonaparte and the Bourbon dynasties in Paris (France) and Madrid (Spain)

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to explore and to compare the use of gas lighting into two capital cities, Paris (France) and Madrid (Spain), as part of the festivities to enhance two dynasties, the Bonaparte and Bourbon, respectively. In the case of Paris, we focus on the feast of Saint-Napoléon, on 15 August, adopted as a bank holiday by Napoleon III during the Second Empire. As for Madrid, we intend to analyse the use of gas lighting in the palaces and other representative buildings and city spaces on the occasion of the end of the Third Carlist War (1872–1876), and the triumphal entry of the young King Alfonso XII into the village on March 20, 1876. We will argue that this use of the gas lighting served not only to reinforce the political power, but also to link the monarchs to the urban prestige as well.