Fekete, A., 2007, Transylvanian Garden History – Castel Gardens along the Maros River, Művelődés Műhely, Cluj Napoca
- Author : Fekete, A.
- Year : 2007
- Title English : Transylvanian Garden History – Castel Gardens along the Maros River
- Publisher : Művelődés Műhely
- Publisher's Location : Cluj Napoca
- ISBN : 978-973-7993-23-6
- Pages : 175
- Edition : 1st
- Abstract : A survey of the Transylvanian castle gardens was initiated by the Department of Landscape and Urban Design and the Department of Garden and Landscape Art within the Faculty of Landscape Architecture at the Corvinus University of Budapest in conjunction with the State Centre for the Conservation and Restoration of Historic Monuments in the fall of 2003, in order to explore and document the surviving Transylvanian garden art remains and the missing chapters of garden history. Among the objectives of the research are to collect all historic material on Transylvanian castle gardens, survey and document current conditions, and where possible, help to save the gardens with their preservation or reconstruction. Considering the overall approach, it is important to note that the objective was not merely to conduct a historic exploration and survey of the various gardens. The historic garden (in our case castle garden) was not a simple ornamental garden, but rather an intrinsic part of the complex, cultural-historic, ecologic and perhaps most importantly economic (estate) system. It is exactly due to this that thegarden was operable and sustainable. Thus we are studying an ecological-technical system with significant historic and artistic content, which can only be interpreted in its entirety. The recognition of the current conditions, often despite the lack of knowledge about its future use, calls for a complete historic restoration, even in those cases where the project would have to be completed in phases due to financial or other considerations. The authors of the gardens attempted to create an ideological picture of the world. As given in the Florence Charter definition, historic gardens stand "as the expression of the direct affinity between civilisation and nature"20. "The baronial castle-park complexes can be viewed as model situations, where along the line of palace-castle-mansion-civilian house-peasant house the botanical and scientific elements of the model are democratically dispersed."21 The remains must and can only be interpreted together with the surrounding settlement and site for the full comprehension of their former significance and current value. According to this, the historic overview compiled based on archival and literary resources tries to give an accurate picture about the formation and development of the researched gardens. It deals with the garden's determining role in the creation of site character and settlement structure and investigates all those site-scale relationships which were considered as particularities during the creation of the castle garden, and which largely influenced the image of the small region that made up the castle's greater environment. Evidently, the research pays close attention to family historic data, as in many cases they can directly be tied to the formation or remaking of the park, garden parts or elements. The presentation of the proprietor families is also important as they carry that conceptual and cultural background, which is essential for the formation of the genius loci and the identity of the site, as well as for the creation of the residence gardens. In several cases the proprietors shaped or directly influenced the formation of the gardens according to their own ideas. The owners of noble residences and gardens can be considered as landscape architectsas on several occasions they constructed and cultivated their own gardens, or even if they employed a gardener or an estate manager, they provided the ideas for development. Transylvanian aristocracy did not only use their countryside castles for hunting or resting, but in most cases they lived there all year round, and the family members used the estate intensively. The result of this personal presence in the case of Transylvanian castle-garden complexes is a more intimate relationship on the one hand between the proprietor and the garden or the estate, and on the other hand between the landowner and his "dependents". The first relationship topped by a diversified topographic scenery lead to a more attractive, original, even intimate Transylvanian English garden, which aspects were lacking in the extensive Hungarian landscape gardens in the plains.22 Furthermore, it is important to mention the historic architectural details, as well as certain settlement structure characteristics, since the castle-garden complex aside from being a unified whole, also organically fits into a given settlement structure and environment. The on-site assessment in all cases records the current conditions (drawings, manuals, GPS-coordinates, geodesic surveys, plant assessment, digital photos etc.), as well as the securable values found, so that it could serve as a condition report and comparative basis for any possible future reconstructions. The landscape architectural value and condition assessment is prepared with the help of geodesic base maps (cadastre maps, manuals etc.) It was an important step to determine and organize those assessment aspects, which are important characteristics and could become searchbases in the garden historic database. To begin, we took the basic historic monument assessment approaches used in Hungary, but some supplements and changes were necessary to accommodate local specifics. Important data about a given area were recorded on the assessment sheets from a historic, landscape, settlement structural and dendrologic point of view. The prime task was to determine the botanical, architectural and all unique landscape features. The following theoretical work plan was established for the methodical exploration of the castles' garden art remains: preparation of the list of all possible sites, identification of research priority sites, conducting the historic exploration, condition survey and assessment of these priority sites, and compilation of their assessment documentation.