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
MórKallina and Aladár Árkay, First prize-winning competition entry for landscaping around the statue of Saint Gerard ofCsandd, 1900 / HU BFL XV.17.d.322.a 118 Döbrentei Square below necessary. The 1898 plan by the engineer of the Board of Public Works, János Bakos, already recommended the creation of a cyclopean wall, a waterfall and some new green spaces, created according to the English landscape style.404 However, the Board of Public Works announced a design competition for the surroundings of the statue, where the applicants also had to offer ideas for the practical layout of pedestrian paths.405 The first prize was given to Mór Kallina and Aladár Arkay.406 Following the recommendations of the competition entries, the Board of Public Works engineers created two versions. Imre Francsek - in line with the prize entries - shaped the surroundings of the statue with strong architectural elements. János Bakos wantedto align the statue with the existing natural features, and placed the monument into a green environment.407 The Board eventually accepted Bakos’s plan, the principle of which was "to fit the existing sublime creation of nature, and to develop the hill into a park as well. (...) The plan lays out its steep slopes with stair-paths, a waterfall, follies in a way that, on the one hand the statue can gain sufficient space, and on the other hand that the whole setting will appear as a picturesque landscape from the bridge, in which nature and artshake hands to create beautiful harmony.”m The plans were accepted by the authorities.409 Keresztély Ilsemann published his plans for the details of the landscaping in 1901 in the journal Kertészeti Lapok. The main principle of his concept was to plant tire rocky area with plants characteristic of mountain areas, “according to the sublime rockclusters”.410 The design was created on three different terraces: the top one accommodating the statue, which was six meters high instead of the originally planned three meters. Below the statue a grotto was designed, and the water falls down a two-terrace height from there. The planting showed the typical zones or layers of the natural mountain flora. Next to the waterfall he planted perennial plants characteristic of this microclimate. To recreate mountain landscapes, Ilsemann not only used plants, but also the various forms of water that were present in wild mountain landscapes. The spring and the waterfall were seen on the hillside, while the lake and the stream were in the little park below the 1-dll in Döbrentei Square. The water from the waterfall was collected and piped under the road to feed the water features in the park below. For Döbrentei Square, Ilsemann remained committed to the planting scheme used on the hill: he used herbaceous plants habitual to the lower slopes of mountains. The link between the two paries - the hill and the square - was created with pieces of rock, which served as fences, unusual boundaries for public parks. The park and the square were opened to the public in December 1903.411 The landscape plans for the southern side of the bridgehead were signed by Ilsemann in 1904. During the history of European public park design the idea of modelling a particular natural landscape - mostly mountains - through the use of plants first appeared in the Buttes-Chaumont Park in France, 131
