Csepely-Knorr Luca: Barren Places to Public Spaces. A History of Publick Park Design in Budapest 1867-1914 (Budapest, 2016)

The Beginnings - The Urban Development of Pest-Buda and their Public Green Spaces Prior to the unification

The beginnings - The urban development of Pest-Buda and their public green spaces prior to the unification

From the point of view of the history of public parks in Budapest the second half of the 19th century is particularly significant, with the most decisive period being the last two decades of the 19th and first decade of the 20th century. This was the time when the social status of gardening was continuously growing, the use of public spaces changed due to the constant development of the city, and the needforand aims ofpublicparks appeared both in theoretical writings about cities in general and in the actual plans for city renewal projects in the capital. However, to analyse development over the chosen decades, it is important to examine the urban inheritance which determined the development of the city and the evolution of parks, both structurally and in terms of public thinking. The first town planning visions were no less important than the built urban structure. These, together with the construction work at the turn of the 20th century, also framed the long-term development of the capital.

Before 1873, instead of the capital Budapest, three independent cities, Pest the civic town, Buda the former seat of the Hungarian Kingdom, and Óbuda a smaller market town, existed.6 The three cities evolved independently, and no permanent link existed between the two banks of the river Danube up until 1766, when first a pontoon bridge and later, in 1849, the Chain Bridge was built. While Buda was a hilly area with natural green areas, Pest, on the other side of the Danube was built on a rather flat plain, and the inner parts of the city contained barely any green oases. This chapter aims to trace how the first green spaces evolved on the two banks of the Danube.

Public green spaces in Buda before 1873

The southwestern bank of the Danube evolved around the fortress and palace of Buda on the castle hill, founded in the middle ages. The north-western part, the city of Óbuda developed on the ruins of Aquincum, a garrison-town of the Roman Empire. The cities were part of the Ottoman Empire between 1541 and 1699.7 After the end of the Ottoman era, in Buda ornamental gardens of cloisters, mansions and private houses contained the most notable green spaces. The Royal Gardens were the most extensive green spaces on the Buda side. Parallel to other European Royal Gardens, these were only open to a limited extent to the public.8 The first large public park in Buda was the so-called Városmajor Park (literally, the city farmstead). The area was bought by the city of Buda in 1729 from the city commander Count Daun, and was rented to horticultural businesses until 1783. In 1785 the reigning monarch Joseph IP ordered the city to create a public park on the land according to the recommendation of two officials.'°Joseph II not only helped the creation of a pubic green space in his Hungarian seat, Buda, but in Vienna he also opened, unlike the precedents, nearly the whole area of the Prater for the public in 1766, and in 1775 the Augarten.11 The official decision by the Board of Governors to create a public park in the city of Buda was dated 25th July 1785. The first layout of the Városmajor Park was made between 1785 and 1787, according to the plans by Joseph Tallherr. The park showed

Survey map ofNiczky (later Horváth) Garden in Buda, 1787 HUMNL-VAML XUl.18Fasc.37

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