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

Mechwart Park with Rózsadomb (Rose Hill), unknown photographer around 1900 / MESZL Budapest Collection

The idea to create a boulevard on the Buda side too appeared in the report by the Board of Public Works in 1874, and was based on the 1871 city planning competition entry by Lajos Lechner. There were several plans for a boulevard stretching from Margit Bridge to (the much later) Erzsébet Bridge. The final plans for the path of the new boulevard were accepted in 1885, by a Committee consisting of delegates from both the Board of Public Works and the municipal council.271 The Buda Boulevard is architecturally much less substantial than its Pest counterpart, however, it is far richer in terms of green space. The parks at the bridgeheads were and will be discussed in more detail. The chain of parks next to the road consisted of the already-discussed Horváth Garden, and Vérmező, which was originally planned to be built upon, but eventually remained as parkland. The section between the bridgehead of Margit Bridge and Széna Square is the poorest in green areas, nevertheless two important parks were also created there during the period examined in this book. In 1894, after the completion of the first phase of the boulevard, running from Széna Square to the bridge of the Ördögárok, Széna Square was designed by Usemann, and a few years later the so-called Mechwart-liget (Mechwart Park) was finalised in front of the National Office of Statistics.

The design for the small green space in Széna Square, dated 1893, is one of the earliest known designs by Ilsemann. The elliptical design is organised in an axial symmetrical order, and does not contain any unnecessary ornaments. The design was made with simple, logical, formal elements and was only planted with trees and shrubs. The fashionable carpet beds were not recommended here. Mechwart Park, as a green space, already appeared in the statistics of Budapest in 1898, as a park around the National Office of Statistics.272 The first plan showing the

landscaping of the area was created at the time of the construction of the Office headquarters, between 1896 and 1898. The formal arrangement of this green space was created in accordance with the main and lateral axes of the new building. A plan by the Head Gardener, Ilsemann, dated 1898, preserved a lot from the previous design - such as the two perpendicular axes - but he modified the geometry of the plan, combining geometrical elements with a more informal layout of paths. A plan from 1901 also survives, which shows the detail of the main flower bed. The park was created with play areas.273 On analysing the layout, the resemblance to examples of German public park design is noticeable, both in formal layouts and spatial arrangement. Meyer, in nearly all of his public park designs, used the ‘hippodrome-form’ for playgrounds and sports grounds. The typical rectangular form, which is rounded on the two shorter sides on the plan for Mechwart Park as well, most probably allowed for a children’s play-area. Not least because the plan is organised around the heavily-emphasised main axis, and the central element, the ornamental carpet bed - which can be seen on the separate, detailed plan - was placed on this. The analysis of Ilsemann’s writings shed light on the fact that a substantial flower bed must have been used as a focal point of the park, and would have been visible from both entrances. The dislevel of the site made it possible for the visitor to see this important feature from above, at the upper entrance. It is obvious that Ilsemann did not place a play area into this representative system, and therefore it must have been in the hippodrome-form. If we compare this plan with the 1874 plan of Erzsébet Square, it is evident that Ilsemann successfully exceeded the contemporaneous stage of landscape design, both in terms of spatial organisation and through his use of geometrical forms.

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