Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 4. (Budapest, 2009)
Recenziók
448 Abstracts ERZSÉBET MAGYAR Budapest’s parks and their communities (1870-1918) Municipal parks, and privately-owned parks and gardens opened to the public, had a prominent place in the social life of 19th century Pest-Buda, and were central venues of public manifestation for certain social classes. The most interesting period for research is 1870-1918, when Budapest, by then the country’s central city, began to establish and develop green areas which became venues for major cultural, political and economic events of national and even international significance. Budapest’s public parks and private gardens are thus sites of definitive significance in our historical memory, in both the specific and abstract senses. They still survive, spaces subject to constant and cyclical change, the bearers of a continuously-developing tradition. In the last third of the 19th century, with the radical change of Budapest’s cityscape and housing conditions and the appearance of the urban proletariat, many forms of social life shifted out of the dwelling place. As the numbers and demands of visitors (e.g. children) increased and the nature and appearance of parks changed (tended parks displacing open green areas), conflicts arose. The various sections of society in principle had open access to public parks and promenades, but their use of such places was separated in space and time and took different forms. A park with a suitable class affinity could play the role of the salon, an ideal venue for socialising, and thus for learning and exercising the norms of social behaviour. The study of visitors to Budapest parks has three primary aspects. It first seeks to establish the extent to which the visitors to specific parks may be characterised. Secondly, the examples of the Városliget, Népliget and Margit Island parks provide an insight into the spatial and temporal separation of visitors. Finally, the opportunities and restrictions of park use for a special segment of park visitors, children, are the subject of an additional study.
