HUNGARIAN MONASTIC GARDENS IN REFLECTION OF CULTURAL CHANGES

Transcription

1 HUNGARIAN MONASTIC GARDENS IN REFLECTION OF CULTURAL CHANGES Kristóf Fatsar Mária Klagyivik Corvinus University of Budapest, Department of Garden Art (Hungary) Keywords: Monastic gardens, Garden history, Cultural heritage, Hungary Abstract The Christian monastic orders have bequeathed a great amount of intellectual and cultural heritage that by arcing over countries embraces all the Christian parts of the European continent. This heritage manifests itself in intangible and material ways alike, to the latter of which a good example is their garden art. The variety of the different orders results in the diversity of landscape formation. reflection During Hungarian history, there were three main breakpoints in the life of monastic orders, which resulted in changing cultural life and thus changing landscapes alike. The flourishing monastic life of the Middle Ages in Hungary came to an end for the first time with the Turkish occupation beginning with 1541, and revived only with the liberation from the Ottoman rule in the end of the 17th century. Whereas almost all of the monasteries had decayed during the occupation, a great change in monastic life began after that, resulting in a large-scale process of (re)construction as well, which culminated during the 18th century. This resulted in many gardens, too, since a large estate belonged to almost all of the friaries, comprising both 1039

2 Kristóf Fatsar, Mária Klagyivik vegetable and ornamental gardens. These latter were shaped as formal gardens containing parterres, arbours, fountains and bowling alleys. The prospering garden art of the Hungarian cloisters, however, ceased again when Joseph II, King of Hungary ( ), abolished all those monastic orders which were not concerned with teaching or medication in his Decree of Secularization of Therefore, the formal monasteries gained a completely new function, which had a great influence on the gardens. The Communist Era beginning in 1950 also had irreversible, destructive effects on these areas. The estates of the Church became the governmental properties, and their new functions and usage perished almost all of the gardens, only few of them survived the era with smaller alterations. The destructive processes lead to such extent that even the privatization after the Change of Regime in 1989, when the Church received back some estates and hence monastic orders could resettle, could not save these gardens. The monastic orders are being renewed nowadays, and therefore the need for conservation and reconstruction of their quondam estates is also increasing. Nowadays, these historic gardens reflect how ecclesiastic and secular culture have both left their mark on them, and thus the task of the conservation of these historic gardens is compound: while preserving the remained elements of the former cloister gardens or reconstructing it, one has to keep in mind their secular period as well (which may last even today), and adjust these two together to be able to demonstrate the true history of these peculiar landscapes. Hungarian Monastic Gardens In Reflection Of Cultural Changes Depending on their monastic aims, religious orders settled either in the towns or on the contrary, in peaceful, natural environments far from other human settlements. Therefore, partly by their effect on urban life and partly by their landscape forming activity, nowadays their quondam estates form an integral part of research in both urban and landscape history. An ongoing comprehensive historical research of the 18th century Hungarian monastic gardens is introduced below, the aim of which is to enlighten which religious orders were determinant concerning garden art and also how this significance displayed itself in the case of the specific orders and monasteries. The activities, symbols, objects of an order were reflected in the forming of their gardens, hence giving a characteristic feature for them. Nevertheless, as a result of the elapsed period, nowadays, these historic gardens reflect how ecclesiastic and secular culture have both left their mark on them, and thus the task of conservation is compound: while preserving the remained elements of the former cloister gardens, one has to keep in mind their secular period as well (which may last even today), and adjust these two together to be able to demonstrate the true history of these peculiar landscapes. The practical aim of the research is to give a good basis for utilization and restoration projects by the presentation of the history of the monastic gardens and the environmental culture of the orders. Hungarian history presents several breakpoints in the life of religious orders, resulting in changing cultural life and thus changing landscapes alike. After the liberation from the 150-years Ottoman Rule, during which almost all of the monasteries had decayed (Török, 1990), a great improvement of monastic life began at the very end of the 17th century with a large-scale process of (re)construction, which culminated during the 18th century. Although the monks economic status was generally more modest than the aristocrats or the leaders 1040

3 Landscapes as a reflection of changing cultural processes of the Church, their gardens still reflected properly the style of the era. The garden elements typical of the period can be found: parterres, bosquets, fountains, etc. (Fatsar, 2008), while specific details of the life of monks enriched these gardens too, e.g. chapels devoted to their specific saints or elements connected to the life of a specific order, like a Jesuit open-air theatre. Their formations were particularly diverse, depending not principally on the wealth and economic status of the order or the monastery, but rather on the regulations and their way of life. Religious orders of the 18th century can be divided into four main groups: - monastic orders (living far from human settlements, devoting their time completely to spiritual activities) - mendicant orders (living of physical work and begging, therefore settled in or close to towns) - canons regular (clerks living in a particular community in a particular place) - clerks regular (clerks dealing with teaching and pastoration, having hardly any fixed dwellers at a particular place). These categories differ in their way of life, and thus, in the way how their gardens were formed. Though they are just the demonstration of a rough classification, and need to be tinged according to each specific case, it can be ascertained that the monastic orders and the canons regular had the more and larger decorative gardens, while the mendicant order and the clerks regular generally restricted the adornments to the cloister garden, using the other parts of their estates for cultivation, though many times formed in an ornamental way. Cultural changes primarily mean secularization regarding these gardens. Monastic gardens could become secular properties in two ways. On the one hand, they could be sold by the monks for financial purposes. This often happened, predominantly in the case of those orders that accumulated great wealth and could do business. A good example for this is the former Jesuit garden in Pozsony (today Bratislava, SK), that had originally been a botanical garden inherited by the monks, but as it got out of their hand, later a distillery was established there, while today it serves as a public space with a playground (Klagyivik, 2007). The other way of secularization was presented by history. The unfolding garden art of the Hungarian monasteries got into crisis already in the end of the 18th century, under the reign of Joseph II ( ). With his Decree of Secularization in 1782, he dissolved all those monastic orders which were not concerned with teaching or medication. Taking into consideration also the Jesuits who were abolished worldwide in 1773, and the Pauline Fathers, the only order founded by Hungarians, who were extinguished in 1786, the number of the abolished monasteries was more than 150. The properties of the monasteries were distributed or auctioned, and got into the hand of the state, the military forces or the municipalities. The building complexes gained a completely new function and were transformed into barracks, hospitals, warehouses or granaries (Velladics, 2000), which, of course, launched irreversible processes in the gardens (the monastery of the Pauline Fathers in Márianosztra, for example, was turned into a jail which exists still today). 1041

4 Kristóf Fatsar, Mária Klagyivik Though the 19th century meant a peaceful, harmonious era for the remaining monasteries, the happenings of the 20th century denoted drastic changes again. The territory of Hungary was reduced to about its third after World War I by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, which resulted in the loss of most of the monasteries as well. The few still belonging to Hungary were further destroyed by the nationalization under the Communist Regime from the 1950 s. The estates of the Church were taken into the ownership of the state again, and the new functions and uses devastated almost all value of Hungarian cloisters. In better cases, the area of the gardens remained and was only transformed. A spectacular example is the case of the Franciscan monastery in Szécsény, where the garden was embanked and new terraces were formed, a worse result was the building up of the garden. The destructive processes were in such degree in this time that most of the gardens could not be saved even with their privatization (return to the Church) after the Change of Regime in As a consequence of history, the number of the surviving gardens is meagre, many of them have been built up or detached from the building. Those ones that still form one unit are very rare, and conservation can be applied almost only in these latter cases, however, even for the implementation of these, the well-grounded comprehensive historic research is inevitable. The above outlined scheme is, of course, only a general overview of the ongoing historical research, and needs to be detailed according to each order and their gardens. References Fatsar, K., Magyarországi barokk kertművészet [Hungarian Baroque garden art]. Budapest: Helikon. Klagyivik, M., A Heindl-örökség egy XVII. századi botanikus kert története [The Heindl heritage the story of a botanical garden in the 17th century]. 4D Tájépítészeti és Kertművészeti Folyóirat [4D Journal of Landscape Architecture and Garden Art], 7, Török, J., Szerzetes- és lovagrendek Magyarországon, [Religious orders and knights in Hungary]. Budapest: Panoráma. Velladics, M., Szerzetesrendi abolíció Magyarországon [The abolition of religious orders in Hungary, ]. Levéltári Közlemények, 1-2,

5 27 TH ECLAS CONFERENCE IN ISTANBUL 29 September-2 October, 2010 Istanbul, Turkey C U L T U R A L L A N D S C A P E Editors Ahmet Cengiz YILDIZCI Yasin Çağatay SEÇKİN Gülşen GÜLER

6 ECLAS European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools ITU Landscape Architecture Department ISBN 2010 Landscape Architecture Department, ITU All rights reserved. Reproduction of this volume or any parts thereof, excluding short quotationsfor the use in preparations of reviews and technical and scientific papers, may be made only by spesific approval of the editors. Copyright of each individual paper resides with author(s). The editors are not responsible for any opinions or statementsmade inthe technical papers, nor can be held responsible for any typing or conversion errors. Editors Ahmet Cengiz YILDIZCI, Yasin Çağatay SEÇKİN, Gülşen GÜLER Graphic Design Gülşen GÜLER, Birge YILDIRIM Published in Turkey by Cenkler, Istanbul, Turkey