hungarian monastic gardens in reflection of cultural changes

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
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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 (1780-1790), abolished all those monastic orders which were not concerned
with teaching or medication in his Decree of Secularization of 1782. 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’
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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 (1780-90). 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).
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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 1989.
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., 2008. Magyarországi barokk kertművészet [Hungarian Baroque garden art]. Budapest: Helikon.
Klagyivik, M., 2007. 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, 52-58.
Török, J., 1990. Szerzetes- és lovagrendek Magyarországon, [Religious orders and knights
in Hungary]. Budapest: Panoráma.
Velladics, M., 2000. Szerzetesrendi abolíció Magyarországon 1782-1790 [The abolition of
religious orders in Hungary, 1782-1790]. Levéltári Közlemények, 1-2, 33-52.
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27TH ECLAS CONFERENCE IN ISTANBUL
29 September-2 October, 2010
Istanbul, Turkey
CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
Editors
Ahmet Cengiz YILDIZCI
Yasin Çağatay SEÇKİN
Gülşen GÜLER
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© 2010 Landscape Architecture Department, ITU
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