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
Heinrich Nebbien, View of the planned entrance gate to Városliget Park, 1816 / Kiscell Museum Architecture Coll. 66.165 donations from the general public. According to Nebbien’s reasoning, if the aristocrats spent huge amounts to create their own gardens, they would be happy to spend money on the ‘national garden of Hungary’. He offered 200 forints of his own, too. However, the total raised from subscription amounted to only 45,000 forints, of which the Archduke Joseph himself gave 6000. The result was a reduction in the original plan: the buildings were mostly left out, but the water features and plantations were realised over the following decades. Until the 1860s the park remained in the same condition. Major changes started after 1885: the relocation of the Zoo, and the Millennium Exhibition with its main pavilions, and the building of the Széchenyi Baths, resulted in constant changes.60 At this point the Embellishment Committee was continuing work on the implementation of Hild’s plans, and therefore the development of parks and green spaces in the city did not have a crucial role. Schams, in his 1821 description of the city, reported the finished projects and the ones which would be finished in two to four years. He mentioned the relocation of the Botanical Gardens as a finished project, and the planting of trees along Üllői Street, the building of the Danube embankments, the creation of the promenade on the embankments, and the building of Városliget Park as a soon-to-be-finished project.61 The work of the Embellishment Committee did not result in permanent and valuable changes in the city’s structure. The main push of their work was the distribution oflandandthe use of the incoming money from creating and selling building plots. In 1858, when these sources were drained, the committee ceased. The major critic oftheir work was Count István Széchenyi, who suggested the first green system plan for the two cities, besides being a tireless advocate of tree-planting and public parks. Heinrich Nebbien, View of the planned dairy farm in Városliget Park, 1816 Kiscell Museum Architecture Coll. 66.165 23
