CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2019

SAVOIR VIVRE AUSTRIA‘S BAROQUE GARDENS
WASSERSPIELE
Brunnen und Figuren, wie der Pegasusbrunnen im Salzburger
Mirabellgarten, sind essenzielle Elemente eines Barockgartens.
WATER FEATURES
Fountains and figures, such as the Pegasus Fountain at Mirabell
Gardens in Salzburg, are essential components of any baroque garden.
CANALETTOBLICK
Das berühmte Gemälde von Bernardo Bellotto, gen. Canaletto, von 1760 zeigt den Blick vom
Oberen Belvedere über die Barockgärten auf die Wiener Innenstadt.
CANALETTO’S VIEW
The famed painting by Bernardo Bellotto, known as Canaletto, from 1760 shows the view from the
upper Belvedere across the baroque gardens and Vienna’s city centre.
INFO
BAROCKGÄRTEN
Gartentage | Garden Days
30.05.–02.06.2019
schlosshof.at
Die Grüne Schatzkammer |
The Green Treasure Chamber
450 Jahre Gärten und
Pflanzensammlungen in
Schönbrunn.
450 Years of Gardens and
Plant Collections in
Schönbrunn.
bundesgaerten.at
Renaissance after 250 years
“Luckily, we have three paintings by Bernardo Bellotto,
also known as Canaletto, who – around 1760,
when the Imperial Family was already in possession
of the palace – captured the garden in all of its beauty,”
says art historian Katrin Harter, who led the revitalisation
of Schloss Hof ’s baroque garden. After
more than 200 years of varying use, there was almost
nothing left of the original garden as created at the
beginning of the 18th century by Prince Eugene of
Savoy, the powerful Habsburg military commander.
“Schloss Hof is a brilliant example that proves that a
garden paradise thought to be lost can be brought
back to life,” Harter expands. “Although it did overgrow
quite a bit, in large part due to the fact that the
garden had no longer looked after in the 19th and
20th centuries, its baroque foundational structure remained
intact.” The original pathways and stairways,
tree pits and flower beds had remained under a
30-cm-thick layer of soil and could thus be reconstructed
faithfully. “With the final garden terrace, the
baroque masterpiece of Schloss Hof is now complete.
Starting at the palace, the impressive garden has been
uncovered step by step and can now, once again, be
enjoyed in all its splendour,” enthuses Klaus Panholzer,
general director of the operating company that
oversees Schloss Hof. And thus, the garden looks today
the way it had been intended nearly 300 years
ago: 500,000 square metres of tamed nature, structured
by way of staircases and artificial waterfalls, representing
both the power and the artistic appreciation
of its builder.
Garden architecture as power play
“The foundation of every baroque garden is symmetry.”
Eva Berger teaches gardening art at the Technical
University Vienna and is considered an expert for
historical gardens in Austria. “There is a main axis
and there are additional axes. With the help of hedge
walls and alleyways, the garden architecture creates
entirely new spaces,” the author of several books on
historical gardens says to illustrate the layout of baroque
gardens. Additional typical baroque elements
are the inclusion of fine art in the form of statues, water
features and fountains, as well as the unity between
palace and garden. The flower beds on the parterre,
for example, are laid out in front of the palace’s
garden façade in such a way that they provide the best
possible view from the festival hall. “Generally speaking,
however, the baroque garden is also a place for
light strolls, horse-back riding and even carriages,”
Berger expands. If you take a look at the individual
elements that make up such a garden – parterre, bosquet,
orangery – it becomes clear that baroque gardens
came to be during the period of political absolutism
in France. The fact that these gardens were often
power plays that were realised through the use of
enormous sums of money should thus not come as a
surprise. “The baroque garden is a very artificial
world that requires a lot of care. This led to irritations
during the age of the enlightenment in the 18 th century.
These types of gardens were then considered oldfashioned
and were replaced by English landscape
gardens,” the historian elaborates on the dissolution
of the baroque gardening aesthetic.
450 years of collecting plants
Schönbrunn Palace is a rare exception here and has
largely been untouched by renovations. The arrangement
commissioned by Maria Theresa beginning in
1742 has maintained its late-baroque foundation continuously
throughout the years. The continuity of
Schönbrunn reaches back even further in that “Österreichische
Bundesgärten“, the authority that looks after
Schönbrunn Palace today, will celebrate “450 Years
of Gardens and Plant Collections in Schönbrunn”
this year. A whole series of events will give rare insight
into the countless scientifically valuable plant
PHOTOS: TOURISMUS SALZBURG; KHM MUSEUMSVERBAND; ÖSTERREICHISCHE BUNDESGÄRTEN
collections sustained by various Habsburg-commissioned
expeditions. “Many species and families that
had temporarily gone extinct or were facing extinction
have been cultivated in the collections over
hundreds of years,” Daniel Rohrauer, head of Österreichische
Bundesgärten, stresses to emphasise the
role of the botanical collection. Next to exotic types,
such as pineapple, it is especially the various citrus
plants that enjoyed much popularity during the baroque
period, making the orangery an indispensable
element of every baroque garden. “Citrus plants were
identified with the golden apples that the Greek demigod
Heracles had stolen from the Garden of the
Hesperides and were symbolic of the Golden Age
since the Renaissance. A large and diverse citrus collection
was thus a source of prestige and also a type of
power play,” expands Claudia Gröschel, research associate
at the botanical collection of Österreichische
Bundesgärten. 2019 thus marks the perfect opportunity
to pay a visit to a green maze or to an orangery,
stroll around the rare citrus trees and dive into the
botanic world of the Baroque, this defining period of
Austrian history.
Historische Ansichten: barocker Küchengarten; Haemanthus Puniceus – die
Pinsellilie wurde aus Afrika importiert.
Historic views: baroque kitchen garden; Haemanthus Puniceus – the paintbrush lily
was imported from Africa.
Grüne Schatzkammer
450 years gardens and plant collections in Schönbrunn
100 years Austrian Federal Gardens
For 450 years, native as well as exotic plants from all over the world have been collected
at the palace grounds of Schönbrunn. The plant collections came to existence by organized
expeditions and a wide range of networks of botanists, gardeners and envoys and they
were permanently enlarged. The Botanical Collections originally started as a part of the
imperial Kunst- und Wunderkammer at the Viennese residence. Nowadays the unique
plant collections of the republic of Austria are a living botanical museum enhanced
by the Austrian Federal Gardens and make an important contribution to preserving
biodiversity. During the 2019 anniversary year, 12 exhibitions present the
impressing history, unknown botanical plant rarities and exceptional
places of the plant collections. We open our Green Treasury for you and
look forward to your visit!
86 Cercle Diplomatique 2/2019
Further information:
HBLFA für Gartenbau und
Österreichische Bundesgärten
Office: +43 1 813 59 50
Email: office@bundesgaerten.at
Exhibition-Programme:
www.bundesgaerten.at