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
Frigyes Feszi, Plan of a bandstand for Széchenyi Promenade, 1847-1848 / Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences K 187/183 spaces. In Széchenyit diaries there was a plan for a bandstand, which was attributed to the well-known architect of the period, Frigyes Feszi.77 The plan dated in 1847-1848 shows a wooden Neo-Classical structure with a pediment. It is not known if it was ever built. The kiosk burned down in 1862, and because of the lack of maintenance, the park fall into disrepair. In his description of the city in 1871, the writer and publicist Lajos Hevesi called it a “fallen glory".78 There was a last crucial but unrealised idea by Széchenyi which needs to be investigated. In his book A’ Kelet népe he described the idea of an open air "national cemetery”, a Valhalla in the hilly areas of Buda.79 Later he developed the idea further and wanted to place it on top of Gellérthegy (Gellért Hill, Saint Gerard’s Hill), closer to the centre of Buda. He called it ‘Üdvlelde’ a ‘place to find salvation’.80 Although the main importance of the idea lies in its role in nation-building, it is important to analyse its significance from an urban design point of view. Gellért Hill determines the cityscape of both Pest and Buda, and to link it with a national shrine can be regarded as part of a Europewide concept, which sought to connect major landscape elements with memorials and monuments to the past. Because of their scale, the design of these places of remembrance became tasks for landscape and city planning rather than garden design.81 Széchenyi’s idea can be placed in parallel to the German Valhalla, originally designed to be in the Englischer Garten, and later built between 1830 and 1842 next to Regensburg, to the designs of Leo von Klenze. Széchenyi wanted to develop the parks and green spaces of Budapest by both publishing his ideas and by actual deeds. With these he also tried to introduce key elements of English public thinking.82 Széchenyi was not alone with his enthusiasm for Britain. Aristocratic travellers drew attention to the importance of British examples of parks and gardens in cities, and the role these played in society.83 26
