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
According to the plans by János Hein and Albert Schickedanz, the Palm Garden and its preciously designed surroundings were to be built on the southern slopes of Gellert Hill, opposite the Sáros Baths.393 The entrance to the complex was placed twenty steps from the bridgehead of the Ferenc József Bridge. From the entrance gate steps led to the music terrace, where the main building was located. This was intended for concerts, but also accommodated a coffee house and a restaurant with views of the Danube. The Crystal Palace, the actual palm garden, was connected to the rear façade of the main building. It was the centre of the built elements; a set of smaller glass houses opened from here, which served as covered promenades. Hein phrased the concept of the park as follows: “I do not imagine the park in its ordinary form, as a composed landscape. Rather as a conglomerate of many small gardens, different in form and creation."394 To realise his vision, the landscape gardener turned to the stylistic results of the Italian renaissance and baroque gardens. A strict geometrical layout was not at all common in Hungarian public parks at the time. The various terraces accommodated gardens with different themes. While one of the areas introduced various types of Coniferus species, others presented collections of roses and lilies. A garden termed ‘Moorish’ and a maze made the spaces more exotic and thus interesting. Next to the maze, a garden called ‘the garden of Grandpa and Grandma’ was to explain the various plants of the traditional Hungarian peasant garden, exhibiting 10 000 hyacinths and tulips in spring (as Grandpa’s plants) and roseroots and violets (as Grandma’s flowers). On the higher terraces, next to the rocks, Hein recommended the creation of an ‘Italian picturesque’ garden with a vine-arbour, where Hungarian wines were offered. By creating waterfalls, fountains and flower parterres, he wanted to create intimate garden spaces that work separately, but also generated a harmonious whole. To offer sport facilities, Hein suggested the creation of tennis courts and football pitches, and a playground that could be turned into a skating rink in winter. Along with these various functions, the main principle of the designers was that the Palm Garden would offer recreational opportunities in both summer and winter, and that the pleasures presented were healthy and morally uplifting. Hence, the building and the gardens were also supposed to be significant from a moral and pedagogic point of view. In addition to the various recreational facilities, concerts and exhibitions, the main goal of the establishment was to provide a special club for gardeners. A special place was dedicated to introducing horticultural novelties, and the designers suggested organising horticultural exhibitions and garden-celebrations to promote gardening and horticulture to the wider public. According to Hein’s description, it was aimed to be a ‘workshop of art’ and at the same time a ‘park club’ for all residents. This unrealised plan shows the most progressive and complex idea for a public park at the turn of the 20th century. From both a stylistic and theoretical point of view, his new complex schemes show that he understood well the role public parks play, he had enlightened theoretical knowledge and his thinking was at the forefront of Western-European design. As Hein explained it in the catalogue of his own work: “Our residential circumstances have fundamentally changed: in the last hundred years, completely new elements have appeared: big cities, villacolonies, public gardens, which were made up for by princely gardens before. The definition of the public garden (people's park, people's woodland, ornamental squares) is constantly changing even nowadays. (....) Let’s analyse the public parks of American cities, such as Boston, and we will see how many things need to be offered in an artwork like this: woods and meadows, flower-gardens, places for sunbathing, swimmingpools, playgrounds, play- and sports areas, paddling-pools etc.”393 Hein and Schickedanz’s ideas returned later as well, although not in such a well-designed whole. In 1913, Mór Gelléri, in his writings, recommended the development of Gellért Hill, based on the example of cities such as Dresden, Zurich, Berlin and Vienna.396 Along with the National Pantheon, he also recommended putting the City Museum on the top, together with a complex leisure centre, accommodating an aquarium, a concert hall, a hotel, waterfalls, hanging gardens, wine cellars and facilities for winter sports. View of Crystal Palace Park with the terraces, postcard, cca. 1900 / HU BFL XIV.243.a Prehistoric reptiles in Crystal Palace Park / Samuel Phillips: Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park. London, 18S6 / MMU Library 127
