Csepely-Knorr Luca: Barren Places to Public Spaces. A History of Publick Park Design in Budapest 1867-1914 (Budapest, 2016)
Introduction
Introduction Green spaces in cities, and especially public parks, created at the end of the 19th and turn of the 20th century are crucial from various points of view. On the one hand, they have determined the structure of our cities since their construction up until today and on the other hand, their evolution was driven by the exemplary idea of equality in society. These parks were the first in the history of garden art which were created to be accessible for everyone, continuously, for free. The open spaces created to preserve the mental and physical health of their visitors aimed to frame the model of the classless society’. Besides this social role, the public parks also aimed to extend the moral, historical, visual and botanical knowledge of the visitors, thus fulfilling important educational goals through embedded monuments, artworks and signposts. As such, it is possible to trace the new challenges created by societal changes in the 19th century through a detailed analysis of the history and alteration of public parks, changes in stylistic attitudes and answers given by urban planners, architects and landscape gardeners. Although the term ‘public park’ is familiar to most people, and everyone has memories of them, it is important to describe what this book intends by the term public parks, and what kind of parks and open spaces will be examined. From a historical point of view, their shared quality is that they were at least partly freely accessible to the general public.1 The earliest spaces to be called public parks were the Royal Parks and gardens (in essence private spaces opened to the public), but the visiting of these was restricted either spatially or in terms of opening hours, and only for visitors from certain social classes. However, the opening of these spaces, and the idea of making them approachable for at least a chosen group of citizens, initiated the idea and started a broader discussion among various professionals. While at the beginning of the 19th century the parks were intended to create space for physical activity, to make nature approachable for the city dwellers, to educate them morally and visually and to help the mingling of the different social classes, throughout the century role of the parks was developed and extended. Besides the previous goals, education in botany and dendrology were further highlighted. The infrastructure of parks expanded as well: specialised sports grounds evolved from the large, freely usable, open lawns, and distinct playgrounds also started to be built. Public open spaces, green spaces, public parks and gardens were commissioned in many cases by philanthropic individuals, given as gifts to serve the wider community. There is an immense number of gardens given by members of Royal families, or parks donated by wealthy citizens to their hometowns. However, from the point of view of the evolution of landscape design theory, the parks of especial importance are those which were commissioned by cities or municipalities, decided upon by the elected representatives of the community and financed by that community, in many cases with the direct support of the citizens.2 This book will only analyse public parks which were created for public use (excluding those private gardens opened to the public mentioned above), and which were commissioned by the city, the representatives of the community. The period examined is the turn of the 20th century, which is the period of the birth of public parks in Hungary, apart from a few early examples.3 The geographical area of the examination is - from an urban history point of view - the fundamentally changing, newly created capital, Budapest.4 This was the period when the public parks, which have shaped the image of Budapest up until today, were laid out. The detailed analysis of these spaces will shed light on very forward-thinking efforts. The attitude and design ideas of the creators of the parks during the period of dualism in Hungary kept abreast of contemporary attempts in Western Europe, and although in stylistic terms they did not break with the more than the half a century old traditions of English landscape gardens, in a functional, design theoretical and social sense they were highly pivotal in their time. Two popular parks in the Hungarian capital do not fit these criteria: both the Orczy Garden and Margitsziget (Margaret Island) were built as a private garden, for a private commission. However, their role as precedents for the public parks of the turn of the century are not to be overlooked, therefore their early development will be analysed in the historical overview of this book. Nevertheless their evolution during the dualist period of Hungarian history will not be analysed. The example of one of the earliest public parks in Hungary, and also in Europe, Városliget Park (City Park; literally: the city open woodland) remained an isolated achievement. Its outstanding philosophical background and design theory will be thoroughly analysed in this book. The alterations in the layout of the park during the decades between the Austro-Hungarian Compromise and the turn of the 20th century - such as the National Exhibition in 1885 and the Millennium Exhibition in 1896 or the building of the Széchenyi Baths - will not be discussed in detail.5 The main reason for this is that the creation of new public parks gives an outstanding opportunity for the examination of the development of design theory, while analysis of the adjustments of existing parks and the creation of new buildings gives far less conclusions. The development of public parks in Budapest can only be judged in comparison with the attempts of open space design in other European capitals and cities. Was the theoretical thinking of Hungarian designers parallel to the professional position of landscape architects in other European countries? An analysis in an international context can help to discover whether the theoretical writings of the period were progressive or conventional by European standards. The international context is also important, as many of the professionals working in Hungary came from or studied abroad, and to understand their thinking we need to be able to judge which principles originated in their place of study, and which were devised during their professional career in Hungary. The analysis of public parks created in the 19th century also has special significance to our current period. City renewal and regeneration projects are continually shaping the appearance and structure of today s Budapest. The understanding of the development of the urban structure of the Hungarian capital is essential to create successful plans for the future which are able to learn from past failures (such as the creation of the Nagykörút [Grand Boulevard] without major green spaces), as well as successes (such as the layout of the large public park at Szabadság Square parallel to the creation of building regulations for the area) of the history of the capital. The structure of public parks created in the given period are in many cases outdated in functional terms because of the changing ways of use. This was enhanced by various alterations, which made important structures - organising the space or mediating crucial ideas - not directly interpretable. Understanding the theoretical background to these designs can answer many of today s designers’ questions: Why were certain parks more popular than others then, a fact which still affects today s appraisal of them? How did the designers of the period create functional variety? What kind of hidden meanings and educational goals did these parks have, and how could these emotional and intellectual qualities be transmitted to the visitors? Previous page: Map of Pest-Buda and its environs, detail, 185S-18S6 / HU BFL XV.16.d.241/cop8 7
