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

Orczy Garden with the Ludoviceum Building, lithograph by Franz Xaver Sandmann after a drawing by Rudolf AH, 1845 / MESZL Budapest Collection

of the kiosk led to the despair of the park, and plans for the development of the green space only appeared decades later. Franz Schams in his description ofPestofl821mentionedthe park asaverypopularand often visited space, in spite of the dust caused by carriages.

Pest’s first large accessible open space was further away from the city walls. This was the English landscape style garden of Baron László Orczy. The garden was built in the mid-1790s, and was designed by the well-known German landscape gardener, Bernhard Petri.32 Orczy built the gardens on his own estate; however, he built it to be a public park.33 The park was meant to be decorated with the classical follies of the English landscape gardens; the plans contained an obelisk, an antique church and memorials placed around the hills and the lake. The designer included vineyards in the views, and next to the hill the viewer could also see Buda castle. The construction of a private garden intended for public use is a very important phenomenon in the history of public parks in Budapest; it shows the enlightened mentality of the owner and the fact that he knew about the idea of public parks.

Not long before the Orczy Gardens, in 1789 Charles Theodore, Bavarian Elector commissioned Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell34 to create a park for public use under the supervision of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count of Rumford.3S The Englischer Garten in Munich was the first of these open spaces on the Continent.36 The main objective was to create a public park to use the "morally uplifting effect of Nature". Sckell’s description of the park’s principle is highly important, he wrote: “aimed

to serve the kind and intimate intercourse of all people, who will be able to meet in the beautiful lap of Nature".37 Besides the park’s social roles, he also wanted it to serve for physical activities.38

The site itself was originally used as a park designed to create space for soldiers’ leisure activities.39 In July 1789 Sir Benjamin Thompson, who was also responsible for the military, recommended the extension of the park to create a public park. Sckell started to design the park under the supervision of Thompson, with the characteristic garden features of the time.40 Until 1804 Sckell directed the works at a distance, from Schwetzingen, when moved to Munich as the new Director of Royal Gardens. This second phase of the park, built under Sckell’s presence, shows the changing views of both the designer and his commissioners, the heirs of Charles Theodore, Maximilian Joseph and Louis. Both the meaning of the garden and the layout was supposed to become more generous, and instead of the wasted details, Sckell’s more monumental style can be viewed. His aim was to create grand views and visually link together the park and the city. A new programme of monuments was created according to the ideas of the two commissioners. Sckell rated public parks as “the most important artworks for the wise and humane government", therefore he recommended the creation of monuments depicting the “prosperous qualities of the nation’’.'*'

The intention of the two parks, the Englischer Garten and the Orczy Gardens were the same, and the designers, Sckell and Petri were connected in various ways. Petri studied under Sckell, and learned the principles of

Previous page: Lauer B., Plan of Károlyi Garden in Pest, last quarter of the 18th century / HU MNL-OL T 20 No. 73/1

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