Csepely-Knorr Luca: Barren Places to Public Spaces. A History of Publick Park Design in Budapest 1867-1914 (Budapest, 2016)
Public Park design in Budapest during the second half of the 19th Century
The Palm Garden on Gellért Hill After the Millennium, the development plans for Gellért Hill moved away from the idea of a national monument, and instead commercial and touristic concepts, such as public pleasure-grounds, the landscaping of the hill and the requirements for the creation of a ‘Spa- City’ were put forward. The plan for a Palm Garden, designed by János Hein and Albert Schickedanz, was an exceptionally progressive idea, both in its detail and as a whole.390 Although the designers named the Palm Garden in Frankfurt as their precedent, the concept of the park, with its complex educational-cultural programme and formal layouts owes much to the ideas of Sir Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace Park in Sydenham. The very strong horticultural and dendrological concepts indicate the impact of Paxton’s ideas, yet further, the fact that the designers themselves called the building Crystal Palace leaves Paxton’s influence indisputable. The Crystal Palace was originally built for the 1851 Great London Exhibition in Hyde Park, according to the plans by Joseph Paxton. In 1852, the building was transferred to Sydenham, where a new public park was built around it, also designed by Paxton. He wanted to create a pleasure-ground that could “elevate the intellect” and "instruct the mind" of the visitors, and offer recreation in all weathers.391 He placed the enlarged Crystal Palace on the top of a hill, and the surrounding gardens were based on the principles of Italian renaissance gardens. Terraces led to the building, ornamented by cascades, fountains and an unprecedented number of flower beds. From the terraces the visitors had the opportunity to enjoy views of the neighbourhood, and also to be able to understand the structure of the park. Behind the terraces, in the outer parts of the park, Paxton used the informal, landscape style, and designed a lake with statues of extinct animals. Paxton’s design became a model from several points of view. On the one hand, this was the first major public park defined by a strict geometrical layout. On the other hand, his complex educational programme proceeded from Loudon’s recommendations to create thematic gardens, spatially separated from each other. In Paxton’s design, the various themes appeared as one compound system: he wanted to develop the visitors’ interest in botany, horticulture and other fields of natural history at the same time. In terms of his formal layouts, Paxton’s design had many followers. The terraces and other formal elements around the central parts of parks can be seen in many of the designs by his pupils, such as the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton, Miller Park in Preston, or Stanley Park in Liverpool.392 The design programme for the Palm Garden on Gellért Hill was no less complex, and the structure and style of the park surrounding the glasshouses showed many similarities to Paxton’s park in Sydenham, too. János Hein, Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Ferenc Herczog, Design for a Palm Garden on Gellért Hill, view of the grand restaurant and café, 1897 Kertészeti Lapok, 1897. p. 288. / NSZL 126
