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The landscape architect, Christian

Heinrich Nebbien, and his design for
the Municipal Park in Budapest
a
Dorothee Nehring
a
München
Published online: 30 Apr 2012.

To cite this article: Dorothee Nehring (1985) The landscape architect, Christian Heinrich
Nebbien, and his design for the Municipal Park in Budapest, The Journal of Garden History, 5:3,
261-279, DOI: 10.1080/01445170.1985.10410541

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 JOURNAL OF GARDEN HISTORY, VOL. 5, No.3, 261-279

The landscape architect, Christian

Heinrich Nebbien, and his design for the
Municipal Park in Budapest

Dorothee Nehring
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The attention ofgarden historians should be drawn to Varosliget (literally 'little town park')
in Pest for several reasons. It is one of the first public parks, perhaps the first of its kind in
Europe, to be laid out from the very beginning on behalf of the town's inhabitants and with
their participation. The designer of Varosliget, Christian Heinrich Nebbian, has remained
almost unexplored in both the German and Hungarian literature. In the sparse material
available Nebbian is mistakenly referred to as 'Henri Nebbian' of French or Belgium
origin.' In fact Nebbian came from an old family of tenant farmers in Holstein. His father
worked as a tailor in Lubeck.F where Nebbian was born in 1778; he died in 1841 as
agricultural counsellor in Glogau.:'
In his lifetime (1778-1841) Nebbien did not achieve the significance of his contempor-
aries, such as Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell at Schwetzingen and Munich or Peter Joseph
Lenne at Berlin or the Prince of Piicklcr-Muskau at Muskau; neither was he apparently
known to them. Nebbian was neither an elegant 'uorno universale' ofliterary stature like
Piickler, nor did he have an influential position at a court or in the administration as did
Sckell or Lenne, Moreover, the quality of his little-known designs does not approach the
quality of the 'classical' landscape designs of Sckell or Lenne,
Nonetheless he combined something of all these attributes in the varied range of his
work. He was amongst the few garden designers of the early nineteenth century who not
only provided designs but also brought them into being; Nebbien was not merely a
practitioner but also a theorist describing the fundamental principles and problems of
contemporary garden design. He thereby enriched considerably our original sources in
garden history. 4
Of Nebbien's writings the treatise on Varosliget of 1816-published in 1981-is of
particular interest. 5 It is a manuscript of82 pages, containing 12 pen-and-ink drawings with
watercolour and wash of the layout of the municipal park in Budapest. Nebbien wrote this
manuscript in 1816, shortly before the appearance of Sckell's 'Beitrage zur bildenden
Gartenkust' 1818, and before the Prince of Piickler-Muskau's 'Andeutungen iiber Land-
schaftsgartnerei' of 1834. In his manuscript Nebbien records in text-book fashion his
opinions and experiences in landscape design; he describes the design of Varosliget and
establishes - perhaps as the first garden designer in the German-speaking world - a social
need and an educational function for the newly organized public parks in the populous
towns of Europe.
In his reflections he was always preoccupied with the fundamental difference between
the .nature of garden design as an art form and that of the other artistic disciplines. The

261
 Dorothee Nehring

transitory character and that quality ofthe fleeting moment in the art of garden design made
him at times doubt whether it was possible to achieve artistic successin a garden; he pointed
out the difficulty of carrying through a design consistently in which several generations
were involved.
The competition for the municipal park in Pest had been announced in 1813. Before, in
the second half of the eighteenth century, there had already been several initiatives to bring
the site of Varosliget into cultivation and to plant it according to the woodland laws of the
time of Empress Maria Theresia. Even pressure from the mayor of Pest in 1794 to establish
individual pleasure spots that were well known from the Tiergarten in Berlin, from the
Prater in Vienna and from English and French models was frustrated by financial
difficulties." Various other attempts brought no fundamental change so that the 'little town
park' was still to Nebbien a 'sandy desert and enormous morass' and 'meadows rich with
springs in its midst'. 7
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Under the direction of the Archduke Joseph a 'Commission for the enhancement of the
town' was set up in 1808. It was intended to solve some planning problems in the towns of
Pest and Buda by means ofbuilding regulations. This commission announced a competition
in 1813-probably the first one in garden history for a public park of this magnitude. The
competition was published in the newspaper Vereinigte Ofner und Pester Zeitung; the main
condition was that as a public park it should be made 'in every possible way pleasant for all
classes of inhabitants'. 8 This was the first projected public park in Europe, which was from
the outset planned for the whole town's population rather than a prince allowing a former
park or hunting-ground to be taken over by the populace and then being newly planned.
The first prize for the competition of 200 Gulden was awarded to Heinrich Nebbien, who
made a show of gestowing this sum on the park to aid its completion."
With his design and treatise Nebbien intended 'to comply with the supreme challenges
of his art' and to provide a kind of model public park for subsequent generations.t? which
would be unique in Europe and possess for Hungary the significance of a national
monument.l ' In practice Nebbien was scarcely in a position to use preliminary preparations
or prototypes for his design: Sckell's operation in the Englische Garten in Munich (237 ha)
and those of John Nash in Regent's Park in London were at this time still under
construction, and Lenne's plans for the Tiergarten in Berlin (260 ha) were only executed
from 1830 onwards.
The other competition entries for Varosliget remain as yet unknown. It is also possible
that Nebbien was given patronage in this contract by his previous employer, Joseph Count
of Brunswick. Since 1812 Nebbien had carried out extensive work on the palace grounds
and estates of the Brunswick family at Also Korompa in Lower Hungary (today Dolna
Krupa to the north of Bratislava, now Czecho-Slovakiaj.P After considerable travel in
Europe (Russia, England, Italy, Holland) and after a varied training on north German
estates, Nebbien settled in Hungary in 18061 3 during the Napoleonic Wars; there he
received contracts from the family of the Counts Brunswick, and from other aristocratic
families in Hungary.
Between 1804 and 1827 the population of Buda increased from 22,300 to 30,000
inhabitants and that of Pest from 26,300 to 56,600 (by comparison Vienna around 1820 had
260,000 inhabitants). Buda, Pest and Altofen were unified as Budapest in 1872. Until the
1850s Varosliget was located outside, to the east of Pest, and was accessible from there by a
long approach avenue. The area between what is now the centre of Pest and the Varosliget
still consisted in the mid-nineteenth century of private plots, gardens, fields and vineyards.

262
 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

Nebbien assessed the situation and especially the planting of the Varosliget as he found it
in 1816 as 'beneath contempt'c-" The site stretches over an area of some 116 ha in a
north/west to south/east direction (figure 1). The square outline of the site was
accommodated in Ncbbicn's dcsign-" (figure 2): this shape which is so awkward for a
landscape garden is softened through a peripheral path embracing the park with an
undulating line and uniting the main sections of the whole. They consist of a large meadow
(C) of pasture1and in the northern section and the lake in the centre with its two islands,
shown as marshland in Nebbien's plan of the site's situation; a meadow in the south (A) was
to be planned as well as the site of an amphitheatre in the south-west corner. One island in
the lake contains a dairy, the other is known as the Rousseau island.
The main entrance on the west side of the park is marked by an archway. It is connected
behind to the so-called circus consisting ofthree circular paths. To the east ofthe circus there
was supposed to be an inn with its front to the lake. A house as meeting-point of the public
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or as a dance hall was planned for the area of the circus and the amphitheatre, and a second
one for the north-west corner. The plantations extend in particular along the edge of the
park and accompany the circuitous path. They are concentrated in the area of the circus in a
looser arrangement; a grove of planes-" and a group of maple!" opposite each other on the
two sides of the circus; the planting of the amphitheatre with poplars, ashes and shrubs.I"
then the copse of chestnut following to the south-east (f) 19 and finally a mimosa hill (n) in the
east was contained by a group of silver poplars in front (m).20 Adjacent to the mimosa hill
there is a cedar hill (h), the highest ground in the park.F' There follows along the meadow to
the north a small wood of poplars (g)22 and a maple grove (e).23 The park is encircled with
poplars, standing behind a line or robinias.

--'-.-
'1'... . i
... v
~

.J

-'

"
\\
t' c. ".' ,~ \
J, / ' - ••
u.
..
> • 1, ' ;(\; ; ,~:~.~:
j)
~ \ ..
" -,
.'" ,-

... ., ..
-,
--- :..~,.~ -;~ :~~
.....
.... ... . 1
': ":
- .,

Figure 1. Plan of Varosliget by c. H. Nebbien showing the site before 1816.

263
 Dorothee Nehring

T·\I\. II
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Figure 2. Design Jar Varosliget by c. H. Nebbien 1816.

Nebbien's plan gives the impression of a compactness and harmonious balance between
the individual parts ofVirosliget. But at the same time we notice a certain monotony and
clumsiness with elements of mostly oval shape, especially in the form of clumps and in the
paths surrounding the meadows. In stylistic terms they remind us of the early landscape
gardens. Nebbien's design has nothing of the refinement in drawing technique of the
landscape designers, Sckell or Lenne, But it should be admitted that detailed designs might
have followed; these drawings thus represent just an indication of the outline ideas, a first
general plan for the competition design. Nevertheless Nebbien had a discriminating concept
of the planning as is evident from his treatise. In its first part he argues the historical
development of landscape design and landscape improvement (fol. I-XXVI), quoting
Montesquieu, Delille, Hirschfeld and Repton; and in the second (fol. 1-56) he describes details
in the park concerning aesthetical and practical points, as well asprovisional costings. This was
at the same time thought of as a kind of systematic guideline for students becoming garden
designers. For this reason he explained in a didactic way his experiences in ground-dressing as
well as in the disposition of woodland and in the moving of trees by particular methods of
cultivation and transplanting techniques.
The considerable aesthetic discussion in England over the problem of how to represent
nature through art in the landscape garden - familiar at the time under the heading 'Nature
embellished by Art' ~ was also widespread on the continent, especially through the literature
of the garden periodicals. Nebbien knew of the picturesque controversy in England and of

264
 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

the contributions of Richard Payne Knight and Uvedale Price to the debate over the
aesthetic principles of the Beautiful and the Sublime in the art of landscape gardening.v"
Nebbien came down on the side of Humphry Repton's definition of the picturesque in the
sense of the beautiful-" which contained the idea of a relation between irregular and
surprising, yet transitional, features and views ofa landscape garden. Intentional irregularity
in the landscape garden was thereby in no way discordant or arbitrary, but rather
substantial: as the Prince of Piickler-Muskau said, 'the motive for every deviation from
regularity expresses itself or can be surmised'. 26 The balance of these tensions among
individual parts was the most important aesthetic criterion of the 'classical' landscape
garden, involving surprise and transition in ground design as well as in the plant masses in
vertical and horizontal directions. Nebbien rejected the 'unsure flapping and confusion'27
and the stylistic elements of the early landscape garden which were intended primarily to
arouse mood,just as much as the 'raw, wild and horrible Nature of the painter'.28 Nature
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was to be established in the park according to the manner of Humphry Repton, whom
Nebbien considered the most significant landscape designer of his day;29 therefore the park
was meant to please the public and be an invitation to physical exercise as well as a mental
refreshment through many varied natural effects. As Nebbien claimed, this could be realized
by the 'appreciation of the characteristics (of Nature) ... on the solid bedrock ofArt'. 30The
composition of the planting was intended to exert a 'purifying' influence on the sensesof the
viewer, whose 'spirit and perception was impressed by various natural scenes'.31 This
corresponds to the beliefheld by some in England that the moral sensescould be affected by
the experience of Nature.
In his planning of Varosliget Nebbien was not able, as was Sckell in the Englische Garten
in Munich or Lenne in the Tiergarten in Berlin, to start from existing woodland. Instead he
was obliged to cultivate first of all the partly sandy, partly marshy terrain and to plant up
virtually the whole of the site. In his treatise Nebbien took the opportunity to describe, as
though in a manual, the various plant groups with their biological characteristics and their
aesthetic qualities. He favoured indigenous trees for Varosliget such as the silver lime (Tilia
alba Aiton syn.tormentosa), since 'all the proportions of this native tree are larger and more
beautiful than those of the other countries in Europe and of America'; namely, 'a stronger,
more powerful structure, a large leaf of two shades, the upper surface being a saturated
green, the under surface revealing a bright white which reflected the breezes; and larger
flowers exuding a honey scent for almost a month'; in short, 'the charms which place this
tree in the first class of plants, with which one can decorate a park of this type'. 32 At the same
time Nebbien supported the introduction of new plants, such as the pencil cedar (J uniperus
virginiana), which was brought for the first time in large numbers into Hungary, and which
was destined to be 'popular in the country' as a relatively undemanding tree.33
For the planting Nebbien drew up a catalogue of the forms and shades of colour of the
tree and shrub groups. He also described for each part of the park the form and colour
complexion of the various masses of tree and shrub groupings as they were made to swell
and to recede in their outline, to open out and to step up in height. He calculated, moreover,
the form of the outlines of the planting in relation to the meadows and to the movement of
the water surface.
In the planting he used, in particular, Weymouth pine, various kinds of cedar, poplar,
willow, maple, chestnut as well as plane trees in groups. At times he interpreted their
appearance in terms of 'mood-stimulus' on the viewer, but in general the factual description
of overall habit, of contrasting and corresponding types of outline shape, of the volume of

265
 Dorothee Nehring

the plant masses and of the colouring predominates. The grove of poplars at the public hall
is, for example,
disposed in the background ... in order to arrange and bring out the greatest
variety of form and colour play in the groups and groves that stand before them. It
is not to be feared that through their tall growth they will conceal the attractions of
the outlying landscape; for the places which are dominated by them are so chosen
that one may see beyond the tree mass, and the tall poplars screen precisely the
eyesore of the artillery building as well as the "prosaic" vineyards, whilst allowing
the beautiful amphitheatre of the mountains ofBuda and even the river Danube to
show up cornpletely.v'
Nebbien also expressed his opinion on the relationship between architectural forms and
plant forms. The prerequisite for being a landscape designer was to have a knowledge of the
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types oflandscape scenery which surround buildings. Basing his thoughts on Repton he saw
a connection between 'pyramidal and horizontal' and also 'perpendicular and fluffy' forms;
he suggested combining Gothic architecture with round, horizontally layered tree types
and classical architecture with vertically structured trees.:"
For the indi vidual parts ofthe park, for the entrance, the circus and the lake area with the
islands as well as for the area at the amphitheatre, Nebbien proposed separate designs. The
circus is dominated by the view of the main entrance on the western edge of the park 3 6
(figure 3). The main entrance consists of a colonnade curved in the direction of the park,
which is crowned by a sculpture group: a goddess of the art of landscape design with a
chariot drawn by two stags. Nebbien may have here been stimulated by contemporary

f,

Figure 3. Design of the entrance colonnade ofVarosliget (as seenfrom thepark) by C. H.

Nebbien 1816.

266
 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

triumphal arch architecture: the Stral3e unter den Linden with the Brandengurg gate in
Berlin, but also the Champs Elysee (with the Arc de Triomphe still being planned) in Paris
were familiar to him."? Or perhaps he was merely keeping to Repton's recommendations
to erect arches of this kind as a 'point de vue' for long approach avenues to a park. 3 8
Nebbien planned the circus in three concentric circles around a grass rondel, for
pedestrians, riders and coach-drivers respectively (figure 3). The circus appears as the only
geometric element in the park and recalls the ronde1layouts in baroque gardens such as
SchleiBheim, Schwetzingen or Wiirzburg, as well as the idea of,viewing and being viewed'
in public promenades of the eighteenth century. Perhaps, however, the English tradition of
circuses and crescents, and open spacesin the half-circle or full-circle, especially in the town-
planning ofLondon, was in his mind. It is even possible that Nebbien knew of an equivalent
circus whichJohn Nash had provided for the centre ofthe newly planned Regent's Park after
1811.39 It also should be recalled that among other writers even Sckell specifically
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recommended circuses and promenades in the manner of the older gardens as geometric
elements in the grounds of public parks."?
At the entrance, the background of the circus was to be planted with balsam and
lombardy poplars. There were acacias graded in height in front, which were mixed and
blended with large Cytisus and Ptelea in the foreground and then enclosed right along the
path with Colutea, Cytisus, roses, Spirea, Potentilla and Comus. 'This play of forms with
the narrow, cylindrical poplars and the fluffy Robinias' was represented rather crudely on
Nebbien's drawing (figure 3). It was supposed to be read at a distance and, by use of the
ascending background, to ensure the illusion of a considerable extent.f '
The circus was meant to be connected to the large lake through the area of the inn. The
large island in the lake N ebbien wanted to provide with a dairy for the agriculturalist of the
Varosliget; it was to be constructed as a 'romantic constellation of different buildings' and in
a style of 'rural charm'42 (figure 4). Nebbien's description of the dairy, in which the public
could find refreshement, reminds us of a hameau or a dairy in the 'sentimental' garden.
Whilst Nebbien recommended otherwise only classical buildings for a park, he saw in the
dairy an architecture of 'apparently artless, neglected, yet pleasing picturesqueness'; it
should contain something of a ruined form and ensure through the alternation of
'Romanesque and Gothic fenestration' the 'illusion of antiquity and the construction of the
remote past'. 43 At this point one again seems to be reminded of the 'sentimental' garden at
the end of the eighteenth century and of the building patterns of]. G. Grohmann's 'Ideen-
Magazin'. In fact the 'Commission for the enhancement of the town' rejected this
recommendation of style and instructed N ebbien to find 'national' motifs for the buildings
in Varosliget; it was claimed that the older building manner should, especially in a public
park, be characterized by its 'national style'. In the representation ofnational diversity it was
the wish of the commision to make use of a 'pattern of buildings of the better Hungarian
country houses', for example in Zips or Croatia.v'
In the planting ofthe dairy island Nebbien envisaged plane trees at the edge ofthe bridge
(0) -see figure 2; in the middle there was to be a grove of Weymouth pine (p), and next to it
a mimosa grove (q), a rose hillock round a monument, a grove of ash-leafed maples (r), and
finally some deodar cedars (s). A nursery encircled with roses and Robinia (u) was envisaged
for the dairy island along with some lombardy poplars and a small grove of planes (t).45
The most sequestered part of Varosligct is the area in the south-west corner, that of the
amphitheatre (figure 5). Three hemispherical rows were supposed to contain 1,500 seats and
2,500 standing places. The site was thought of as a 'summer exercise ground' for 'military

267
 Dorothee Nehring

J... '..

F(~ure 4. Des (~11 for the dairy of Varosliget by c. H. Nebbien 1816.

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Figure 5. Design for the amphitheatre of Varosliget by c. H . Nebbien 1816.

spectacles, bucolic theatr e or idyll s, dances, fights, equ estri an events, gymnastics and
aerobatics' r'" For stage scenery N ebbi en used the sur ro unding tree groups, followin g a
similar plant ing scheme to the elltrance, with various popl ar typ es as backgr ound, and then
low woodland with meadows at a distance and the sma ll lake to emphasize ru ral
character."? The oval lawn in fro nt ot the theatre was plann ed for equestrian events, as was
ind icated by horses next to an obelisk at the back w all of the am phitheatre. On the steps
down ward s on both sides vases and statues of the Bor gh ese gladiato r were projected .
Between the am phitheatre and the circus a small dance hall was supposed to stand in a
mim osa grove (figure 6). It consisted of an open colonnade ove r a platform and tw o side

268
 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

rr ·n,.
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u. .U

Figure 6. Design for the dance hall of Varosliget by c. H. Nebbien 1816.

rooms with low round-arched windows above a rusticated band .r'" Nebbien's design was
possibly influenced by the architecture of the well-known summer hall in the Worlitz park;
but this was used as a place of sojo urn for court society, whereas Nebbien expressly
envisaged the dance hall for the use of the general public."?
For Nebbien it was not just a matter of a public park serving a social function as a resort
for the population of the town . He was also aware that the movement of the public itself
played an aesthetic role as a perspective device, rather as though on a stage. According to
Nebbien the participation of various other artistic disciplines- painting, sculpture,
architecture, music and theatre - were deliberately to be integrated into the landscape
garden , the one balanced against the other. 50 Varosliget was given the quality of a
composite artistic work , in which the residents of Pest could take an active part. In his
plannin g Nebbien wanted to provide 'co mmon recreation in the fresh air' for all classes of
the towns population.P! He even envisaged the guest-house in the dair y as being available
for renting at length by the inhabitants who were working in the town and who wished at
the same time to live in natural surroundings outside. 52
Physical training for visitors to a park was in itself no new idea. In Germany as early as
the 1770s Johann Bernhard Basedow, founder of the philanthropic school in Dessau,
proposed for its educational programme three hours daily of 'regular pleasure in exercise'
through dancing, riding, fencing, music and gymn astics, which later were combined as a

269
 Dorothee Nehring

lesson of 'physical education'. 53 This progressive idea in the princedom of Anhalt-Dessau

were provided beside contemplative and edifying walks to the temples and sculptures of the
park. in the 1840ssport and play-grounds very often obtained a dominant position in public
parks in England; in the second half of the nineteenth century this spread across to Germany
under the influence of health reformers like Daniel Gottlieb Moritz Schreber. Nebbien
implied, not yet a programme ofphysical training for the town's population as in the second
half of the nineteenth century, but already a communal recreation and indeed an incipient
departure from the very largely' contemplative and edifying'54 recreation of the individual
in the park of the eighteenth century.
Nebbien considered public parks, of all garden types, the least developed. As early as the
seventeenth century for example in England and the eighteenth century in Copenhagen,
John Evelyn and the barrister J. P. Willebrand had demanded green belts for the
improvement oflife in the town; and in the Bavarian Academy ofSciences in 1778 there was
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a polemic delivered against the 'thousand poisonous clouds, which make the town air a
hidden plague'. The garden theorist C. C. L. Hirschfeld also pressed for public gardens as a
form in its own right, where the public can assemble 'at particular times ofpleasure or need',
and to which he attributed a moral and educational function in contrast to the 'ignoble'
pleasures of the town. He also saw public parks as enabling classes to mix more easily.P?
After the Napoleonic Wars the number of civic parks increased significantly through
the use of the ramparts and the town walls. As a result, building land became available,
which was urgently needed by the increasing population. In Pest the town walls were
taken down in the 1820s and in their place a landscaped ring-road (now Museumsring) was
constructed. As a result of the increasing settlement of the town to the east Varosliget
gradually was drawn into the town.
For Nebbien the overriding aim of his planning was to make Varosliget a public park,
which was not, as customary in the eighteenth century, 'opened out of magnanimity
towards the public by those in power', but which was 'to be the immediate possession and
creation of the people or of the larger population of a town'. 56 This aim was indeed realized
with the initiative for the park's planning coming from the Commission in Pest. 57 In
contrast to the princely garden-owners in the eighteenth century, the Archduke Joseph as
representative of the Hungarian king had neither the role as initiator nor one as patron and
indeed not even as an artistic dilettante when it came to establishing the park. The initiative
for the making of Varosliget lay, for the very first time, with the inhabitants of the town.
They were represented on the 'Commission for the enhancement of the town', both in the
planning and execution of the project, by a series of prominent citizens as, for example, the
architect Michael Pollack. 58
The Archduke had merely a confirmatory role, which also extended to the financial
planning. With Nebbien's work at Also Korompa for Count Brunswick mentioned-earlier,
there existed still a relationship of exchange between the aristocrat as client, patron and
dilettante, and his designer who was employed for the execution of the planning and who
was responsible to him alone. The publication of the competition for Varosliget illustrates
the role ofthe architect which had been changing since the end ofthe eighteenth century. He
was often no longer held by his aristocratic client in a tight working relationship, but had to
look increasingly for contracts on tender from the aspiring bourgeoisie. In the case of
Varosliget, Nebbien no longer had to be responsible to a single private client, but first and
foremost to the 'Commission for the enhancement of the town' which had been called into
being by the town council. This initiative shows how, in the early nineteenth century,

270
 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

bourgeois consciousness in the form of civic pride was consolidated inside the town
community and linked to the idea that projects, for which citizens themselves could be held
responsible, should be taken away from the town administration.
The philosophy of Nature in the landscape movement of the eighteenth century implied
that the predominantly contemplative and edifying character of the recreation would arise
out ofthe identification of the individual with Nature, but also out ofthe stimulus expressed
in the pseudo-classical and exotic buildings, the monuments and mottos in a prince's garden.
They represented the individual education of the prince and his activities as an art coIIector
in which his subjects more or less were supposed to participate. In the early landscape
gardens in Germany, in the second halfofthe eighteenth century, the past was represented in
monuments less as history and more as an emblem of 'the ephemeral': graves or tombs and
the architecture of ruins. Men who had served their country or well-loved members of the
prince's families or of the cultural world were depicted on individual monuments. The
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garden theorist C. C. 1. Hirschfeld envisaged early on a place for public parks in awakening
patriotic and national feelings in the population. He made an appeal for a 'patriotic form of
gardening', to educate the populace during its leisure hours. He recommended especiaIIy the
placing ofstatues in a park, of'heros, law-givers, and ofthose who had saved or enlightened'
the country. Hirschfeld very clearly preferred these symbols to be of 'own national
character'59 rather than Greek and Roman statues.
At the end of the eighteenth century and around 1800 the landscape garden in Germany
developed a more pure naturalness; its function began to change to recreational areas
planned for the public. At that time hierarchic-patriotic and bourgeois-national elements in
the monuments were emphasized. As early as the Englische Garten in Munich. Sckell had
insisted upon building a pantheon along the lines put forward by the Bavarian Crown
Prince Ludwig who suggested exhibiting 50 busts of 'outstanding Germans'. This proposal
anticipated, on a smaIl scale, the idea of the later German W alhaIla.60
Varosliget in Pest was seen not just as a framework for monuments, but also - and this
was new-in its entirety as a national monument to Hungary.v- Nebbien emphasized the
'personal attraction' that such a park would represent for Hungarvv-' and also its uniqueness
in Europe, where it would be 'the purest expression of the great virtues ofa people' and 'the
product of the spirit, the taste, the patriotism and the culture of a noble nation'. 63 Most
certainly, competition with the glittering neighbour, Vienna, with its princely gardens now
open to the public, played a role as well.
Nebbien envisaged the islands especially as a stage set for 'monuments of the most
beloved citizens and men of the country'64 and for the presentation of 'great and happy
events in the country's history'. 65 The large island was supposed to be provided with a
monument at its tip in the form of a column or obelisk. The smaIl island he planned-
influenced no doubt by Hirschfeld ~ as a symbol ofpain and melancholy with cypresses, the
establishment of cedar groves and a planting-up of the banks with willows, The island,
which rises graduaIIy as a conical hill, was supposed to contain a sarcophagus-like
monument.v" The seclusion and the form of the island reminds us of the Rousseau islands in
the early landscape gardens which Nebbien knew at least from published illustrations; the
specific symbolic meaning of plants and their setting were carried on even by F. 1. von
Sckell.
Nebbiens suggestion for a 'pantheon' was not designed to become a building in the
form of a hall of fame, as in the Englische Garten in Munich. Instead he was thinking of a
'metaphor' by planting pines on the large island, in the centre of which statues and busts 'of

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 Dorothee Nehring

the most cherished and honoured men from the past and present, and from within and
without the country' should be displayed with 'symbolic planting'."? Beyond this Nebbien
characterized the plantations in the woodland sections of Varosliget as 'suspended domes',
which should be monuments to the donors.s"
Although Nebbien on occasions falls back on patriotic monuments along the lines of
Hirschfeld, in his treatise he also suggests modern criteria for a national monument. As
regards the pantheon idea of the Englische Garten in Munich these criteria are the sacred
quality, which arises out of the connection between monument and nature and the 'rural'
surroundings of a national monument; furthermore the connecting of historical with
landscape panoramas: the pantheon, for example, with its busts of historical personalities is
thought to be inserted as an historical panorama into a landscaped panorama. Furthermore,
by interpreting the whole grounds as a national monument for Hungary, Nebbien
anticipated the idea of 'national gardens' which were propagated by some garden theorists
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around the 1850s.6 9

The whole project including the financing of Varosliget lay with the citizens of Pest.
The low estimated costs even in those days were certainly one of the attractive points in
Nebbien's competition design. The finances were supposed to be raised from different
sources: by a renting system and - in the beginning - by a modern shareholder-system as
well as by a patriarchal job-providing scheme. Nebbien looked to the income from the
pasturage in Varosliget and from the nursery which was attached to the dairy and finally
from the rent ofthe dance hall and the guest rooms in the dairy. 70 Moreover, Varosliget was
supposed to 'entice strangers to come for lengthy stays in the town' in order to 'multiply the
returns and the circulation of cash'."! Beyond all this, the attempt was made to lay an
obligation on the town to finance the maintenance of the paths, meadows and waterbodies
in Varosliget. 72
With the employment of workers, the construction of Varosliget was seen as a welfare
programme, as a 'beneficial place of work', through which 'a new source of income' could
be opened up 'to the poorer classes of the town's community'. Emphasis was laid-as was
customary at that time - on the useful and beneficial influence ofsuch a project: the creation
ofjobs and the employment of cheap labour as well as the moral influence of such work on
the people. According to the Commission for the enhancement of the town 'such an
organisation of work would prevent the workers from slipping into vices associated with
indolence out of their enforced idleness', for it is 'very moving how people compel
themselves to work in order to be able to appease their hunger and that oftheir families with
the most meagre eamings'i?"
On the recommendation of Nebbien and the commission, the largest sum in the
financing was to be raised through a graduated system of donations.?" taxes, subscriptions
and shares.i" The distribution of shares was, however, rejected, because this could not be
covered by the income from Varosliget.?? More profitable parks with collections like the
zoo in Regent's Park in London or the Berlin Zoological Garden were more suited to such a
system.
Quite evidently the enthusiasm of the population for financing their park was
overestimated. The donation and the subscription system initially raised only 45,000 Gulden
out of a cost-estimate of 257,175 Gulden, although at the beginning 340 people had
promised to pay yearly 100 Gulden over a 10-year period."? Credit from the town and an
interest-free loan of 800 Gulden from the Archduke joseph?" promoted the initial
construction of the site from 1816/17. However, the park remained incomplete probably

272
 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

even into the early 1820s because of economic difficulties and because of more urgent
projects in Pest."?
Until around 1870 plans for Varosliget maintained Nebbien's fundamental concept,
especially in individual features such as the circus (later 'rondeau'), the three large
meadows, the pond with both islands and the dairy on the large island. Until 1827 the
straight axis of the path from the circus to the east side of the park was retained. This axis
originated from the period before Nebbien's designs? and had already caused him some
trouble. 81 It is still clearly recognizable on the plan of1827;82 on a plan after 1860 it has been
taken up in favour of a forked and winding network of paths,83 which plans of 1850
onwards confirmed throughout the whole system ofpathways. 84In 1870 there appears on a
plan a path system corresponding to the garden style of the time; it was executed in a
masterly fashion with elliptical curves which cut across even the circus." 5
With the Hungarian millenial exhibition of 1896 the final changes were made to
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Varosliget and a system of even-width vehicular and pedestrian paths was completed
covering the whole of the site. 86 It consisted of completely new wide avenues equipped for
'representations' and a large number ofvisitors. Some ofthese avenues were lined with trees
forming the main structural elements in the park. The individual sections are added one to
another and laid out more in terms of their respective functions and less in relation to the
whole park, as would be typical of the landscape garden of the early nineteenth century.
Nebbien's circus was integrated into the axis of the trades exhibition hall by means of
symmetrical division. Hereby it was monumentalized and at the same time treated merely as
a visual bridge to the new exhibition hall of Varosliget. In addition the building ensemble
ofVajdahunyad was built as a national symbol on a spit ofland in the lake, with copies of
famous historical Hungarian buildings like the Romanesque church of Jak or the castle
Vajdahunyad."? The entrance to the park on the west side was moved to the north to the
newly laid out 'Hosek tere' (Hero's Place). This consists of a colonnade with statues of
Hungarian kings.
Development in the twentieth century brought further changes to Varosliget, mainly
through road-widening; changes which make a reconstruction of the park very difficult.
Indeed it does not seem very feasible, as it has not yet been possible to interpret definitively
how far in detail Varosliget was built in the first place after Nebbien's plans. 88 Nonetheless,
Nebbien's designs and his treatise remain for the garden historian important historical
sources of an outstanding chapter in the history of European municipal parks.
While Nebbien was engaged in the initial direction of the constructions at Varosliget he
was also completing his work for the palace grounds and estate at Also Korompa for Count
Brunswick."? Before 1821 he took part in the work for another member of the Brunswick
family at the famous estate and palace grounds in Martonvasar, south of Budapest (see note
91), which is well preserved today and whose main designer was hitherto unknown. No
doubt Nebbien belonged to the circle of artists who were given patronage by the
Brunswicks, and through them he had contact with the composer Ludwig van Beethoven,
who lived from time to time on the estate of Martonvasar and who dedicated one of his
piano compositions to the 'immortal beloved' Theresa Brunswick. Nebbien himself
obviously had a musical talent, at least there is a mention that he had requested Count
Brunswick for the favour ofletting Beethoven have his latest arrangement of a folksong-
on the basis obviously of some earlier agreement with the composer.P?
Beyond this Nebbien was certainly at work for other aristocratic Hungarian families. At
the time of his work for Also Korompa and of the planning of Varosliget there also occurs

273
 Dorothee Nehring

probably the planning for the park of Soborsin (Komitat Arad, now Savirsin Rumania,
cast of Aradl.?! The date for the creation of the park of Ellemer (Komitat Torontal, now:
Elemir, Yugoslavia) can be established before 1818.92 And before 1821 there was also the
park of St Gyorgy (Komitat Torontal, now: Zitiste, Yugoslavia, south of Zrenjanin) for
Anton Kis de Itebe, and the park of the estate of Ecska (Nemer Ecska, Komitat Torontal,
now: Ecka, Yugoslavia, south of Zrenjanin) for August Lazar de Etska. These latter two
Nebbien described separately along with the sites of the Baron Alexander Pronay in
Toalmas (north-east of Budapest, still existing with changes from the end of the nineteenth
century), Varosliget and Martonvasar.v' Whether, and, if so, when Nebbien might have
been involved in laying out the following parks has not yet been verifiable: in St Anton
(Szent Antal, Komitat Hont, now: Antol, Slovakia, south of Banska Stiavnica) for the
Kohary family and in Belter (Komitat Gomer, now: Betliar, Slovakia, north of Rozriava)
for the Andrassy family.?" Designs for gardens and parks outside Hungary were completed
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(according to Nebbien) for the estate ofKozrnin near Kozmin in Poland and for the estate of
Krzyzanowicz near Breslau before 1834.95 Most of his activities were alloted to the
planning and setting up of estates and farm steadings in the kingdom ofPoland, in Posnania,
in East Prussia and in Bavaria, for which Nebbien supplied an inventory for the years
1808-1834. 96 There are indications that he took part in the alterations of the castle in Also
Korompa together with the architect Charles Moreau.?? Also he worked in Vienna as an
architect, delivering a design for the competition of the Vienna castle gate in.182098 (figure
7).
Of Nebbien's planning activities examples are as yet only known from before 1834. In
the light of numerous writings from the 1830s until his death in 1841,99 which have
remained so far unexamined by scholars, one can assume that Nebbien's activities were

~t.. I.

Figure 7. Design by C. H. Nebbienfor the 'Butgtot' at Vienna (competition 1820).

274
 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

turned mainly on publicizing his experiences in the reform of agricultural systems and
cultivation. Landscape improvement developed out of an extensive movement for
improving agriculture and the conditions oflife strongly influenced by the Enlightenment.
It united agriculture, architecture and garden design in one discipline which was
increasingly specialized during Nebbien's time. In the same way as Gustav Vorherr in
Bavaria or Peter Joseph Lenne in Prussia, Nebbien worked on a rationalization of the
agricultural system, which first and foremost was to consist in an improvement of the soil,
bringing higher yields and increasing thereby the 'national well-being'. This idea had been
developed in a similar way by the philanthropic-agrarian circles of the eighteenth century.
Believing in a possible improvement of human condition, Nebbien developed moral and
educational components in a somewhat mechanistic formulation in his 'Freya or the spirit of
landscape gardening' .100 In this essay he developed a utopian idea for the progress of
mankind, in which Europe was represented as the seat for a unification of all styles based on a
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global system of cultural improvement, both occidental and oriental.

In his later writings such as 'Der schuldenfreie Staat'I"! Nebbien discussed methods of
improvement including examples of accounting and agricultural production. Thereby he
differentiated himself from popular writers like Albrecht Thaer, the German founder of a
'rational agriculture'. Nebbien criticized Thaer's 'spoon-feeding of agriculture according to
the mechanistic ways of the manufacturer', meaning the belief in agricultural
improvement through capital investment. He contrasted this thesis with the theories of
Bethe and P. J. Lenne in Prussia and he demanded new methods ofcultivation and irrigation
and reforms in the organization itself; the aim was to achieve through this a position of
national prosperity with the annulment of states debts. 1 0 2
Further efforts on his part consisted in demanding that landscape design should be
systematized as a discipline by calling in all the other necessary sciences, and that a chair
should be established for teaching the art oflandscape gardening. 103 He planned, moreover,
the publication of series of essays-P" as well as lectures about landscape design along with the
planning of Varosliget.J'"
Nebbien's designs and sketches, more than 80 of them, for the layout of estates, farm
steadings, parks, gardens and woodland areas up until his death in 1841 1 0 6 illustrate his
versatility and the wide span of his activities from East Prussia to the Banat. He himself was
dissatisfied with the success of his activities, saying that he had come away from the
dissemination of a 'great deal of useful knowledge with nothing but hatred and
persecution'c-?? He considered his work prejudiced through the 'envy of middlemen and
officials'.108 It is certainly true that the affirmative character of his recommendations was
already criticized by contemoraries who considered his hopes 'too sanguine'. But at the
same time it was acknowledged that he had 'ideas of genius' and had contributed 'to the new
rules oflandscape improvement' .109 There was also a lack of outside recognition, with the
exception of the proposal made by the 'Commission for the enhancement of the town' to
grant Nebbien the citizenship of the town of Pest for his 'patriotic behaviour and his zeal in
promoting the welfare of the community'.11° In an attempt to clarify his own estimate,
Nebbien created a new title for his profession, which was supposed to show the range of his
activities; as an experienced garden designer and as agricultural counsellor he termed himself
simply an 'environmental designer', 111 a term which is in fact familiar today.
Munchen

Translated by Mark Laird

Centre for the Conservation of Historic Parks & Gardens
University of York
 Dorothee Nehring

Notes
I. ASNA ZADOR, 'Az Angolkertek Magyarorszagon', in Epltes-Epiteseettudomanv; 5 (1973), Pl'. }-53, in
particular p. 49. See also ZADOR, 'The English Garden in Hungary', in N. pEVSNER (ed.), The Picturesque
Garden and its Influence outside the British Isles (Washington, 1974) Pl'. 79--98, especially p. 95 (in the series,
Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture vol. 2). ZOLTAN GOMBOS, Regi
kertekPesten is Budim [Old gardens in Pest und Ofen I (Budapest, 1974). For information on the conservation
and condition of historic gardens and parks in Hungary see KAROLY ORSI, 'Az clmult 10 ev kertepitesi
ercdmenyei a muernlekvedelemben' [Ten years of protection for historical gardens], in MuemlekvMelem, 15
(1971), Pl'. 129 147.
2. CHRISTIAN HEINRICH NEBBIEN, 'Ueber mich selbst und mein Streben, solche Einrichtung in Bewirtschaftung
der Landgiirer zu tre/fen, daB sich ihre Renten mit Sicherheit vonJahr zuJahr mehren miissen, Die ersten 30
Jahre meines Lebens', in CHRISTIAN CARL ANDRE, 'Mcrkwiirdige Oekonornen', in Oekonomische Neuigkeiten
und Verhandlungen, 49 (1829), Pl'. 387-389. Continued ibid, 50, Pl'. 398-400; 51, Pl'. 403·407; 52, Pl'. 41}-
415. Sec especially 49, p. 387.
3. Information from the Archiv der Hansestadt Lubeck. In contrast to this, Nebbien affirmed that his father had
died 'in the l Oth year' of his life, that is in 1788. Sec NEBBIEI';, 'Ueber mich selbsr', 01'. cit., p. 387. Archival
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material about C. H. Nebbien and his family docs not exist in the town archives ofGlogau (now: Glogowa,
Poland).
4. As yet there are few published and edited sources of German garden history of the first half of the nineteenth
century. Apart from famous works by Sckell and Puckler (FRIEDRICH LL'DWIG VON SCKELL, Beitriige zur
bildenden Canenkunst [Miinchen, 1818J, HERMAI';N FURST VON pUCKLER-MUSKAU, Andeutungen uber
Landschaftsgiirtnerei [Stuttgart, 1834J and a new edition [Stuttgart, 1977]), there are numerous but little
analysed treatises, texts and remarks from and about garden designers and their work in contemporary
garden almanacs, handbooks, gardening journals and periodicals ofassociations which were increasing at this
time.
5. CHRISTIAI'; HEINRICH NfSSIEI';, Ull,l!artlS Folks-Gartell der Koeniglicnen Freystadt Pesth (1816), published and
edited by Dorathee Nehring in the series, Veroffentlichungen des Finnisch- Ugrischen Seminars an der
Universitat Miinchen, Reihl' C, Bd. 11 (hereafter, NESBIEN, Folksgarten) (Miinchen, 1981).
6. For the development of Varosliget before the announcement of the competition, see FRANZ SCHAMS,
Vollstiindige Beschreibung der Kiiniglichen Frevstadt Pest in Ungarn (Pest, 1821), Pl'. 368-373, and LAJOS
SCHMALL, Adalekok Budapest szekesflivlJQS tortinetehez; vol. 2 (Budapest, 1899), 1'1'.107-114, and TIBOR
THAI Y. ,4 20() ':"I'; r ·,ir",·/(~ ..t (Budapest, 1<)58), Pl'. <) 4<).
7. NEBBIEI';, Folesgarten, tol. XIX.
8. Announcement of the competition published in Vereinigte Ofner und Pester Zeitung, no. 5 (17 January 1813)
1'.7.
9. Budapest, Fovarosi Leveltar (Budapest town archive, hereafter as Budapest, F. L.), Pesti Szepito Bizortsag,
the Palatine Joseph to the 'Commission for the enhancement of the town' 3 March 1817. As yet the other
participants and their designs remain unresearched. Sec also NEBBIEN. Folesgarten folio 52, and Budapest,
F. L. Pcsti Szcpito Bizottsag, Extractus I'rotocolli Commissionis Decorator (9 March 1817).
10. NEBBIEI';, Folksgarten, folio 5.
11. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, folio 37.
12. Sec the extensive correspondence of over 500 pages that Nebbien had between 1812 and 1818 (most
intensively until 1815) on the subject of the grounds of Also Korompa, including undated individual designs;
Bratislava, Statny Slovensky Ustredny Archiv, Fonda Brunswick-Chotek, Dolna Krupa A-I1I-a 4 (without
details oHolio). This comprehensive collection ofletters, in which Nebbien kept Count Brunswick informed
of the progress of the site work in minute detail (since the Count was resident at the time in Ofen) , falls into
the category of rare historical sources for gardens, namely builder's log-books.
13. NEBBIEN, 'Ueber mich selbst', 01'. cit., no. 4<), O. 387 f. See also C. H. NEBBIEN, Der schuldenfreie Staat, oder
lalldwirthschajtliche Ansuhten und E~fahrun,l!el' ill Hinsicht auf all,l!emeine Schilidentilgung, sowohldet Landguter, als
dcr Staatm (Berlin, 1834) p. 59.
14. NESBIE:". h,/lugart"Il, fol. XXI.
15. Sec in the following NESSIEN, Fo/ksgarten, tab. I, II (figure 1,2).
16. NEBBIEN, Fo/ksgarten, fol. 10.
17. NEBBIEN, Folesgarten, fol. 12.
18. NEBBIEN, Fo/ksgarten, fol. 15 f.
19. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fol. 16 f.
20. NEBBIEN, Fo/ksgarten, fol. 19.
21. NEBBIEN, Fo/ksgarten, fol. 30.
22. NEBBIEN, Fo/ksgarten, fol. 30.
23. NEBBIEN, Folksgatten, fol. 29.
24. NESSIEN, Polksgatten, fol. IX.
25. NESSIEN, F,,/ksgarten, fol. IXf.

276
 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

26. PUCKLER-MuSKAU, Andeutungen uber Landschaftsgiirtnerei, op. cit., p. 28.

27. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 22.
28. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 22.
29. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. IX.
30. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 22.
31. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. XXI.
32. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 10. In several letters there is evidence of Nebbien's contact with the
Hungarian botanist and director of the royal botanical garden in Pest, Pal Kitaibe!. See Bratislava, 'Statny
Slovensky Ustredny Archiv, Fonda Brunswick-Chetek, Dolna Krupa A-Ill-a 4. Nebbien to Count
Brunswick (without date).
33. NEBBIEN, Folksgarien, fo!. 16.
34. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 29.
35. Nebbien had already made an aesthetical comparison between contrasting types of trees on his planning of
Also Korompa before the design of Varosliget. See here DOROTHEE NEHRING. Stadtparkanlagen in der ersten
Halfte des 19. [ahrhunderts, Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des Landschaftsgartens (in the series, Geschichte des
Stadtgriins., Bd. 4. (Hannover, Berlin, 1979)), p. 141. See also Bratislava, Statny Slovensly Ustredny Archi»,
fonda Brunswick-Chetek, Dolna Krupa A-Ill-a 4. Nebbien to Charles Moreau, Porteny from 25 August
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1813. (Instructions for plantings near to the palace.)

36. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, tab. IV.
37. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. XV.
'38. See Repton's description of'The Gateway to Harewood' in HUMPHRY REPTON, Observations onthe Theoryand
Practice of Landscape Gardening (London, 1803), in The Landscape Gardening of the late HumphreyRepton, Esq.,
ed.], C. Loudon (London, 1840), reprinted (farnborough, 1969) pp. 117-320, especially p. 249 and figs. 85,
86.
39. for interpretation of the circus layout in Regent's Park see NEHRING, Stadtpareanlagen, op, cit., 31 If., 138 f
40. SCKELL, Beltrage :.Gur bildenden Gartenkunst op. cit., p. 223 If.
41. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 9.
42. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 24.
43. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 24 and tab X, figs. 10-12.
44. Budapest, f. L., PEST!, Szepito Bizottsag, 'Commission for the enhancement of the town', comments on
Varosliget (without date).
45. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 31.
46. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 8. See also NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, tab. VII.
47. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 15 f.
48. See NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, tab. VI.
49. NEBBIEN, Folks,l!arten, fo!. 7.
50. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. XXIV.
51. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. XV.
52. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 24.
53. JOHANNES PFORTE, 'Fortschrittliche Bestrebungen und Einrichtungen zur Hebung des Bildungsniveaus im
Dessaucr Land' with use of manuscripts from Erhard Hirsch and Dr Hartmut Ross in Der Dessau- Worlitzer
Kulturkreis, Worlitzer Beitra,l!e zur Geschichte (W orlitz, 1965), pp. 40-55, especially p. 44 f.
54. DIETER HENNEBO, 'Stadtgriin und funktionsvorstellung im 19. und am Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts', in
Stadtisches Grun in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Veroffenrlichungen der Akademie ftir Raumforschung und
Landesplanung. Forschungs- und Sitzungsberichte. Bd. 101. Hannover, 1975), pp. 41--48, especially p. 44.
55. See NEHI\ING, Stadtparkanlagen, op. cit., p. 111 f.
56. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. XV.
57. NEHRING, Stadtparkanlagen, op. cit., p. 120.
58. Budapest, f. L., Pesti Szepito Bizottsag, Extractus Protocolli Com. Decorator from 9 March 1817.
59. C. C. L. HIRSCHFELD, Theorie der Gartenkunst, 5 vols (Leipzig, 1779, 1780, 1782, 1785). See especially vo!. 5,
p. 70; vo!. 3, p. 131 f. Reprinted (Hildesheim, 1973).
60. NEHRING, Stadtparkanlagen, op. cit., p. 130 f.
61. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 37.
62. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 51.
63. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 35.
64. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 23.
65. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 27.
66. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fol. 27.
67. NEBBIEN, Folks,l!arten, fo!. 27.
68. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. XXIll.
69. NEHRING, Stadtparkanlagen, op. cit., 130 If.
70. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo!. 23-26.

277
 Dorothee Nehring

71. BUDAPEST, F. L., Pesti Szepito Bizottsag, The Palatine Joseph to the 'Commission for enhancement of the
town' from 29 November 1817 (fol. 3v). (Memorandum about the fmancing ofthe park, containing 12 sheets
without numbers, as a copy.)
72. NEBBIEN, Folesgarten, fo1. 37.
73. BUDAPEST, F. L., Pesti Szepitc Bizottsag, Lechner, Degen, Fischer to the 'Commission for the enhancement of
the town' from 21 December 1817.
74. NEBBIEN, Folks)1arten, fol. 37.
75. BUDAPEST, F. L., Pesti Szepito Bizortsag, Thomas Kardetter, Johann Samual Liedemann, Michael Pollack,
Johann Lechner to the 'Commission for the enhancement of the town' from 31 March 1817.
76. BUDAPEST, F. L., Pesti Szepito Bizottsag, the Palatine Joseph to the 'Commission for the enhancement of the
town' from 29 November 1817 (fol. 3r) (Memorandum about the financing of the park).
77. Ibid, (fo1. 4v.5r) See also SCHMALL, Adalekok op. cit. p. 116 f.
78. BUDAPEST, F. L., Pesti Szepito Bizottsag, the Palatine Joseph to the 'Commission for the enhancement of the
town' from 29 November 1817 (fo1. 6v) (Memorandum about the financing of the park).
79. SCHAMS, Vollstiindige Beschreibung der koniglichen Freystadt Pest, op. cit., p. 371.
80. See NEBBIEN, Folks)1arten, tabll (fig. 1).
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81. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fo1. XXI.

82. See RAYMUND RAPAICS, Magyar Kertek (Budapest n.d.) tig. 91.
83. See FERENC FRIWISZ, A Varosliget es kornyekenek alapraijea 1868, Budapest, Fovarosi Leveltar (without
signature) .
84. See FERENC FRIWISZ, (Plan of Varosliget around 1850), Budapest, Fovarosi Leveltar. P. T., 82.
85. Anonymous (Plan of Varosliget around 1870). Budapest, Fovarosi Leveltar, P. T. 80.
86. See 'A. VI.Ker., Varosliget parkozasi terve' (District 6, Plan of Varosliget), in Zoltan, Regi kertek, op. cit. fig.
p. 173.
87. See'Az ezredeves kiallitas madartavlati kepe' (Birds-eye perspective of the Millenary Exhibition) in A Pallas
Nagy Lexikona, vol. 12 (Budapest, 1896) p. 670.
88. It has not yet been possible to establish information about Nebbien's detailed plans and written commentary
which go beyond his description of the design and his treatise for Varosliget, The present documentary
material is confmed predominantly to the organization and activities of the Commission.
89. See ref. 12.
90. Bratislava, Statny Slovensky Ustredny Archiv, Fonda Brunswick-Chotek, Dolna Krupa A-lll-a 4, Nebbien
to Count Brunswick from 13 March 1814.
91. Bratislava, Statny Slovensky Ustredny Archiv, Fonda Brunswick-Chotek, Dolna Krupa A-lll-a 4, Nebbien
to Count Brunswick from 23 March 1815. Nebbien mentions here the seeds which he had chosen for the park
which he was commissioned to provide for Soborsin.
92. By NEBBIEN, mentioned in e. H. NEBBIEN, 'Die Forschule der Landschaftsgartnerei' in Hesperus,
Supplement, September 1818, no. 16, pp. 117-124; no. 17, pp. 125-133; no. 18, pp. 131-132, especially no.
16, p. 118.
93. e. H. NEBBIEN, Geist der Landsschafts-Bildnerei als Programm des grossern Verkes (Weimar, 1821) (Freia
oder Geist der Landscahft-Bildnerei. Bin Bildungswerk jUr nationalen Vohlstand und hiichste Sihonheit der
Geniisse. 1. Lieferung. Programm des Yerkes) p. 112 (appendix).
94. For the reference to the parks of St Anton and Betler I am endebted to Dr E. Fiigedi in Budapest.
95. NEBBIEN, Der schuldenfreie Staat op. cit. p. 193 and p. 195.
96. NEBBIEN, Der schuldenfreie Staat op. cit. p. 193 If.
97. Bratislava, Statny Slovensky UstrednyArchiv, Fonda Brunswick-Chotek, Dolna Krupa A-lll-a 4, Nebbien
to Count Brunswick from 22 August 1813. Charles Moreau was also the architect for the palace ofthe Princes
Esterhazy at Kismarton (now: Eisenstadt, Austria).
98. Vienna, Albertina, Architekturzeichnungen, file 66, cover 6, nos. 30-36 (sides I-VII), including the
manuscript of'C, H. Nebbien, Entwurffon dem neuen Thore ... from 16 September 1820,13 fol. This design
was not carried out.
99. Index of Nebbicn's writings see NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, p. XXVI f. (Introduction by the editor).
100. NEBBIEN, Geist deT Landschaft-Bildnerei op. cit.
101. NEBBIEN, Der schuldenfreie Staat op. cit.
102. NEBBIEN,'Ueber mich selbst' op. cit. p. 388; and NEBBIEN, Der schuldenfreie Staat op. cit. p. 6 f.
103. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fol. XII, XXV.
104. The series was envisaged under the title 'Die Propylaen der Landschafts-Girtnerei', NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fol.
51. See also NEBBIEN, Propylaen der Landschaftsgartnerei (Pest n.d) Budapest, Fovarosi Szabo Ervin
Konyvtar, B 0910/29. This manuscript contains a transcript of part of Nebbien's treatise about Varosliget. It
probably was supposed to be the 1st volume of 'Propylaen der Landschafts-Gartnerei'. On Nebbien's
intentions of publishing journals on landscape design see NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, p. IX (Introduction by the
editor).
105. NEBBIEN, Folksgarten, fol. 51 f.

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 Christian Heinrich Nebbien

106. NEBBIEN, Der schuldenfreie Staat op. cit. p. 193 If. (Index of his designs and sketches until 1834). Nebbien
refers his activities until 1831 'Aus einer zwanzigjihrigen Praxis an mehr als achtzig Giitern in den
verschiedensten Landem Teutschlands hiemit zu Grundriss und System gebracht. '-as the subtitle of
Nebbien, Die Einrichtung der Landgiiter, auffortwiihrendes Steigen der Bodenrente, 3 vols. (Prag, 1831).
107. NEBBIEN, Der schuldenfreie Staat op. cit. p. 195.
108. NEBBIEN, 'Ueber mich selbst' op. cit. no. 50, p. 399.
109. CHRISTIAN CARL ANDRE, 'Merkwiirdige Oekonomen, Wirtschaftsrath Nebbien' in Oekonomische Neuig-
keiten und Verhandtunoen 1829 no. 49, pp. 385-387, especially p. 386.
110. Budapest, F. L., Pcsti Szepito Bizottsag, motion of the Commission from 31 March 1817.
111. Andre, 'Merkwiirdige Okonomeri' op. cit. p. 385.
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