Habsburg capital Pest: expansion and axial interventions

The Hungarian capital Budapest was created by the incorporation in 1837 of three much older cities: Buda, Pest and Obuda. The name for this new city reflects this as it is a conjunction of the two largest cities of the three. An alternative form was written as Buda-Pest. Of the three urban cores Obuda is the oldest. There was a roman settlement and military camp here from 29 AD called Aquincum. At the heart of Pest and further north near Margetsziget a small roman fort was built on the bank of the Danube.

Pest is first mentioned in 1148 as the trade city opposite the castle on Buda-Hill (Budavári Hégy). As is often the case the church freedom is located on the old roman fortress. A settlement grew along two parallel roads on the floodplain of the Danube. It is unclear when this settlement was fortified with walls. The first fortifications from the eleven hundreds were most likely a raised bank with a paling on top. Most walled fortifications were constructed from the 13th century onwards. The well known semicircular shape with a high wall and 4 large gates was probably constructed under King Mathias Corvinus in the 15th century. After the recapture of the city from the Ottoman Turks by the Habsburg Emperor in 1686 the city lay in ruins and had to be rebuilt and resettled. Reconstruction adhered to the older medieval layout.

In 1704 Pest received the charter of Imperial Free City of the Habsburg Emperor. The construction of the Invalid Hospital (now the City Hall) between 1725 and 1735 resulted in a break of the medieval walls to create a better connection to existing roads and the market fields beyond the walls. By 1730 the area within the old walls has been completely repopulated and filled in. This quickly lead to the development of suburban settlements beyond the walls. In an effort to guide the spatial development and regulate the supply of fitting residential areas new suburbs were designed encircling the walled city during the second half of the 18th century, much like what was done in Vienna and Munich.

Again along the Germanic model, these suburbs were named after royal patrons. In 1777 Térezváros (Theresiënstadt) was named for Queen Mary Therese who had visited the area in 1751. The Alsó-Külváros (Lower Suburb) was renamed Józsefváros (Josefstadt) in 1the same year to honour Emperor Joseph II. In 1790 the northern suburb is (re)named Lipótváros (Leopoldstadt) in honour of king Leopold II. In 1838 a large flood destroys large parts of this and the other suburbs and it is rebuilt on a grid layout. In 1792 the development of a new suburb started in the south. It was named in honour of King Francis I of Hungary as Ferencváros (Franzstadt)  In 1882 a section of Térezváros was renamed in honour of the popular Queen Elisabeth (Sisi) as Erzsébetváros (Elisabethstadt).  

By 1780 more people were living in the suburbs than within the old city. This development required better communications. There had been no bridge across the Danube, but in 1761 a barge bridge was constructed linking Pest and Buda. The first bridge constructed was the Széchenyi Lánchid (Chain Bridge) opened in 1849.

As part of the planned suburbs wide radial streets were laid out that ended at the old city gates. On the north side several squares were laid out along a wide street from 1812 onwards. Before large market fields for livestock and horses were located here. The poor connectivity between the old city and the suburbs created congestion and traffic problems, so a rethink along the lines of Hausmann with large boulevards was planned. The initiative came from count Gyula Andrássy, the then Prime-Minister, who proposed a new boulevard belt road and radial in 1870. This plan included a small boulevard ring (Kiskörút) that replaced the former city defences, a large boulevard ring (Nagykörút), a new radial (Sugárút) and two new bridges on either end of the large semicircular ring road.

In 1900 a very Hausmannian intervention was proposed, with a new boulevard running straight through the old city centre from the east station across a new bridge towards a new square on flat terrain between Castle Hhill and Gellért Hill. This would materialise as the Kossuth Lajos út and the Erzsébet híd (Elisabeth Bridge). The boulevard was angled such that it avoids the medieval church of Mathew. At the same time most buildings around this church were torn down. The old central square was thus greatly enlarged, but lacks a clear spatial definition.

The axial interventions superimposed on the historic core of Pest. The seminal structure was a roman fortress located underneath the central square and church freedom (A). The second urban core was centred around a former abbey - now a university (B). To the north of this walled city on the market field the Erszébet tér (E) and Vörösmarty tér (V) were laid out. The Bajcsy Zsilinszky út (1) was built as a wide thoroughfare along the edge of Lipótváros. In similar fashion the Rákóczi út (2) and Üllöi út (3) were constructed. The National Museum (M) of 1849 predates the ring boulevard that was built over the former city walls. This Kiskörút connects indirectly to the Széchenyi Lánchid (H1 - 1849), and directly to the Szabadság híd or Liberty Bridge (H3 - 1896). The central Erzsébet híd (H2 -1903) connects to the new central boulevard.

Budapest is still very much a twin city with the hills of Buda in the west and the flat city of Pest in the east. Of the 5 bridges connecting this "inner city" span the wide Danube, 4 are part of the historic ring boulevard structure impose on the expanding capital of Hungary in the 19th century. Nowadays the city centre has expanded beyond the old walled city, but also includes parts of the planned suburbs within the 1877 Nagykörút.

The spatial structure of Budapest is dominated by the physical landscape and the 19th-century interventions. The double semicircular boulevard belt roads are the most prominent feature.This structure is mainly located in Pest (P) and avoids the hilly terrain of Buda (B), Budavári (V) and Gellért Hill with the Citadel (C). The flat "Watercity" Víziváros (Vv) is also avoided.The old city of Pest is encircled by planned suburbs starting with Lipótváros in the north via Térezváros (T), Erzsébetváros (E) and Jószefváros (J) to Ferencváros (F) in the south. Two large urban spaces, Vörösmarty tér (1) and Erszébet tér (2), form a buffer between the grid suburb of "Leopoldcity" with its central garden square (3) and the old city. At the edge of this suburb the parliament building (4) was built. Andrassy út (A) with the Opera HOuse (6) forms the back bone of "Theresiacity" beyond the outer belt boulevard. It culminates in Hörök tére (Heroes Square - H) on the edge of the City Park (Városliget - VL). Both railway stations (north station - 5 and east station - 7) are located on the edge of the planned suburbs near an important junction of radial roads. There are no formal ensembles along the boulevards! The National Museum (8) and the Corvinus University (9) are located directly adjacent to the inner boulevard. The 5 bridges started with the central Széchenyi Lánchid (h1) and was followed by the Margit híd (h2 - 1876), Szabadság híd (h3), Erzsébet híd (h4) and finally the Petöfi híd (1933), thus completing the circuit.  

Axial interventions: the avenues of electoral Berlin and beyond

Following the growth of the Twin City Berlin-Cöln as a result of the growing importance of Prussia within the German Realm the capital city of Berlin grew rapidly from the 16th century onwards and several suburbs sprang up outside of the cities defences. In 1618 The Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia where joined cementing the pivotal position of the Elector of Brandenburg within the Holy Roman Empire.

Directly next to Cölln the electoral suburb of Friedrichswerder, which received town freedoms in 1662, was developed. The regular layout was aimed at enhancing the beauty of this new town as the first planned expansion. The new town was located on low-lying ground between the city walls of Cölln and the Spree Canal. In 1668 Friedrichswerder was incorporated into the city defences of the capital of Brandenburg, although it remained a separate settlement. Thus in 1678 a new town hall was built on the central market square.

In 1670 Elector Frederick William gifted the Kleiner or Cöllner Tiergarten (a swampy fenced-off hunting estate directly adjacent to the Spree river and the old city) to his wife Sophia Dorothea. Joachim Ernst, the Overseer of Fortifications, was responsible of the layout based on a strict grid of streets. This new extension of the city received town privileges in 1674 and was aptly named Neustadt before it was renamed Dorotheenstadt in 1681. It was secured by an extension of the city defences with an outer moat, earth banks and walls.

Electoral Berlin with the multitude of axial interventions and grid additions around the old Twin City of Berlin-Cölln with the city of Berlin (1) north and the city of Cölln (2) south of the Spree river The later was expanded with the addition of Neu-Cölln (3) and Friedrichswerder (4). Further west we find Dorotheenstadt (5) and Friedrichstadt (6).These were located adjacent to Luisenstadt (7) and the Grosser Tiergarten (8).

The grid of Dorotheenstadt was aligned parallel to the hunting avenue of Unter den Linden (literally: underneath the lime trees) that had been built in 1573 to link the Residence with the Kleiner Tiergarten and was extended to the edge of the Grosser Tiergarten in 1647. This axial intervention was done according to Dutch examples and planted with lime trees and walnut trees. In 1695 the avenue was extended for several miles to the Charlottenburg Palace and cut right through the large hunting pleasance. At one third of its length a large roundel was created within the Tiergarten with 8 avenues radiating out: the Grosser Stern. This design was based on Dutch examples of hunting forests, so-called Sterrenbossen, but on a much grander scale.  A second roundel was built at two thirds of the length of the axis, without the star shaped avenues radiating from it, but incorporating pre-existing roads.

After the death of the Elector Frederick William in 1688 his son Frederick III, the later King Frederick I of Prussia, had a new city built on the fields west of Cölln. The work on this third expansion of the city started in 1691 and was designed by a team of architects and engineers on a formal, geometric layout based on a grid with several open spaces of distinct shapes (square, rectangle, octagon and circle) and axial streets. The central axis was an extension from the Dorotheenstad north of Unter den Linden. The eponymous Friedrichstadt was entered from this point via the Friedricher Tor, a city gate. In the west the new city was bound by the Leipziger Landwehr, a defensive earthwork. It was also governed as a separate city with its own charter until all three electoral suburbs, Berlin and Cölln were incorporated as boroughs within the new city of Greater Berlin in 1709. After Prussia had been elevated to a kingdom in 1701 the importance of Berlin as a German Capital City rivalling Düsseldorf, Hanover, Dresden, Munich and Vienna increased steadily.

The first series of axial interventions was concentrated on the west side of the old city. The former hunting avenue of Unter den Linden (U) connects the Lustgarten (G) in front of the Hohenzollern Residence with the Brandenburgerplatz (B) with the well known Brandenburger Tor, a ceremonial gate. This splendid street also formed the central line of the Forum Fridericianum (F). The main axis of the new grids sits at a right angle to the original axis and was extended north across the river and south towards the round Hallesche Tor Platz (H). A secondary axis (Leipzigerstrasse) connects Friedrichswerder via the Leipziger Tor with the octogonal Leipziger Platz (L). The small oval Potsdammer Platz lay beyond the Potsdammer Tor. From here an axis (2) towards Schloss Bellevue (3) cuts through the Tiergarten. It crosses the extended axis of Unter den Linden with the Grosser Stern (1). A separately positioned axial intervention is related to the Reichstag Building (4). It follows the basic orientation of the Raczynski Palace that stood here before.

Whilst the development of Friedrichstadt was regulated and planned by royal appointment by Oberbaudirektor Philipp Gerlach, the suburb southeast of Cölln developed in a rather ad-hoc manner along pre-existing rural lanes and roads. This Cöllnische or Köpenicker Vorstadt fell prey to the ravages of the Thirty Years War and was completely destroyed by fire. Between 1734 and 1736 the Berliner Zollmauer (Customs and Duties Wall) was built around the city and its suburbs. The famous Brandenburger Tor on the axis through the Tiergarten is a remnant of this structure that had no military purpose. In 1802 the Köpenicker Viertel within was renamed Luisenstadt in honour of Luise the wife of Frederick William III.

Immediately after his ascension to the throne in 1840 King Frederick William IV commissions the famous landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné to redesign Luisenstadt and execute an extension of this Borough towards the Flossgraben or Landwehrkanal ,a drainage canal that was dug in 1705. At the centre of the new design is a new drainage canal linking Spree and Flossgraben: the Luisenstadtischen Kanal that was opened in 1852. Lenné designed an axial composition inspired by Hausmannian interventions in Paris with several axes over a basic  grid layout, but incorporating older streets. The new canal forms part of the main axis that culminates in a church and starts at a wide lock. The brilliance of his design shows in the canal that curves away from the central axis leaving room for a secondary axial composition whilst widened sections of the canal served as spatial devices within the side axes with "water squares" at the crossing points.

The Luisenstadt is a contorted grid with several parallel axial streets. Of these only the central axis from the Canal Lock (1) via the Oranienplatz (2) on the main transverse axis towards the Church of St. Micheal (Michaelkirche - 3). The transverse axis connects two squares (one round, one square) on parallel axes. The Moritzplats (4) enforces the junction of the transverse axis with the Prinzenstrasse. The Heinrichplatz (5) signifies a secondary axis that ends with the Church of St Marianne (6) with the Bethanienkloster (7) at an angle of 90 degrees, thus emphasizing the curve in the Luisenstadkanal.

Conscious capital beautification: axial intervention in Brussels

The largest city of Brabant became the new capital of Belgium in 1830 after the split of the post-Napoleonic United Netherlands. Brussels was a certain choice as an important historic city centrally located within the Dutch speaking part of the young Belgian State but importantly with a strong ruling class of francophones. As the largest city within the historic Duchy of Brabant, Brussels was a large fortified city, although it had plenty of space within its defences at the time it became the new capital of Belgium. This old city was characterised by the often winding streets and alleys. The new king Leopold I (a German Prince by birth) ordained the beautification of his new capital and in 1831 work started on dismantling the walls and earthworks. The former glacis was transformed into an ample boulevard for carriages lined with 4 rows of trees. The area within is henceforth known as the Pentagon (Vijfhoek in Dutch).

Modelled on Paris, new roads were cut through the medieval clutter of streets and buildings from about 1850 onwards. The old city already boasted an axial intervention dating back to 1777 when the Rue Royal was laid out along the edge of the park of the Brussels Residence. The park was also remodelled and replanted. Across from the residence a Government building for the Brabant Council is erected between 1779-1783. Across from the new Warande Park (a warande is a small hunting park for pheasants, fallow deer and other small animals) the Dutch King William I has a new palace erected in 1820 not far from the site of the former palace of Koudenberg that had been destroyed by fire in 1731. After the independence of Belgium the old Council building is appropriated as the new parliament building known as the Palace of the Nation located on what is henceforth known as Law Street. The new King of the Belgians moved into the purpose-built palace that was expanded in 1877 to double its original size.

The first axial interventions beyond the Warande Park are located outside of the grand ring of boulevards. In 1837 work starts on the Leopold Quarter, a grid based high-status suburb directly east of the old city that is modelled on German examples in Dusseldorf, Berlin and Munich. The gridlines tie in with the layout of the Warande Park. In 1847 the Avenue Louise was built linking the city with the Forest of Cambre. In 1853 the Avenue along the Warande Park is extended beyond the Ring of Boulevards towards a new church. Along this extension the so-called Column of Congress is erected in 1859. Also within the old city, a large part of the Marollen Neighbourhood is demolished from 1860 onwards to create space for the enormous Palace of Justice on Gallow Hill. The building and the axis linking it to the Place Royal are completed between 1867 and 1883. Between 1868 an 1871 the Zenne river was culverted within the Pentagon and a new boulevard was built over it: the Boulevard Anspach that cuts through the medieval streets of the oldest urban core of Brussels.

The oldest axial interventions within the old city centre around the Warande Park (a) To the north of this formal park the parliament building (1) is located, opposite the royal palace (3). The first formal axis starts at the Place Royal (2) with the classicist complex of the Constitutional Court and the Church of St Jacob on the Mount.The Rue Royal continues from the park along the Column (4) and the Botanique, a botanical garden (5) to end at the church of St Mary (6).Directly east of the Warande Park lies the Leopold Quarter (b) with a (former) station building (c) at the end of the lowest street.

Behind the Leopold Quarter a large eponymous park was built between 1851 and 1854. Further north a high-class neighbourhood, inspired by London's Garden Squares, was built north of the Leopold Quarter between 1856 and 1872. Like the Leopold Quarter the axis lead from nothing to nowhere and are therefore not really axes but rather formal street plans that tie into the pre-existing pattern of streets and rural lanes.

Most axial intervention in Brussels are based on the 1862 plan of Victor Besme for the beatification of the capital city. The crown prince was very taken by his ideas. Thus in 1864 a plan for the creation of the Avenue Leopold II is passed by the city council. The idea was to expand the city across the Koekelberg Plateau west of the city. The axis that runs off the northern Boulevard is the central axis of this so-called Leopold II Quarter. Several imposing buildings were planned at the cusp of this axis: a Royal Villa (1864), a Palace of Industry (1866) and a National Pantheon (1879). None of these where built, instead the large Art Deco Church of the Sacred Heart was built in the elevated park from 1905 onwards.

To commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Belgian Independence in 1880, Leopold II orders the creation of a large Jubilee Park along a new formal avenue that was an extension of the important Law Street (Rue de la Loi) that runs between the parliament and the Warande Park. The terrain had been used for the manoeuvres of the City Guards. As part of the jubilation festivities a National Exhibition was staged in the new park with two large exhibition buildings designed by Gédeon Bordiau. Due to the enormous success of this exhibition, the park is enlarged and hosts the World Exhibitions of 1888 and 1897. It is with the 1888 International Contest for Sciences and Industry that the park becomes known as Jubilee Park. IN 1905 a large Triumphal Arch is built linking the two exhibition buildings. The structure with 3 arches is crowned by a statue of Brabantia in a quadriga and spans the central axis. As the point de vue of a secondary axis the large Mosque was built in a corner of the park in 1879.

The axial interventions after Besme are a continuation of earlier interventions that are seldom formalised with a beginning or end. One of the most contested axial intervention connects the Place Royal (a) with the Palace of Justice (2) via the Rue de la Régance (1) a formal street. The Avenue Louise (b) is both a beautiful street with trees as well as an improvement of traffic structure. The Leopold Park (c) is located on an extended formal street off the Leopold Quarter. North of this the extended Rue de la Loi (d) forms the central axis of the formal Jubilee Park with the exhibition halls (3) and the mosque (4).The Quartier des Squares (e) centres on the Square Ambiorix. Within the oldest parts of the city the Boulevard Anspach (f) lies over the covered Zenne river. It connects to the Boulevard Emile Jacqmain that leads to the Boulevard Albert II (h). Around the Gare du Midi a formal street - Boulevard du Stalingrad (g) - forms the centre of the Quartier Rouppe. The Grand Ensemble on the Koekelberg was inspired by Mont Martre. The central axis of Avenue Leopold II (i) is a continuation of the northern Boulevard d'Anvers and culminates in the large church in the Elizabeth Park (5). With the starlike formal streets that radiate out from this central point du vue this ensemble is known as Leopold II Quarter (j).

The area between the Leopoldpark and the Jubilee Park was developed as the centre of the European Union after WW2 and has changed dramatically with the addition of large office buildings that are places rather haphazardly within the older urban fabric.

Beautiful Streets: bridging the Isar in Munich

After the first Bavarian king Maximilian (Max) I had started a classicist inspired project to improve his capital city of Munich by adding the eponymous Maxvorstadt between 1805 and 1810, his son Louis I (Ludwig in German) completed his vision by building the so-called Splendid Streets, avenues lined with trees and large buildings aligned on monuments placed at important junctions within the urban landscape.

His son Maximilian II ruled as king of Bavaria from 1848 until his death in 1864. He tried his best to maintain the independence of Bavaria within the German Confederation and paid patronage to the arts and science. He was however completely dependent upon the Austrian Empire the strongest and most populous country within the German Confederation. Max II resided in the Munich Residence, which had been enlarged and unified with new classicist facades by his father Ludwig, and the pleasure palace of Nymphenburg a few miles west of the city. The new king had to make his mark on the city after his very visibly influential father and grandfather before him.

So, shortly after his ascension to the throne Max II commissions the sheep paddocks east of the river Isar to be converted into a "memorable urban jewel crowning the glorious capital city of Munich". His grand scheme however proves difficult to realise as the low-lying grasslands are susceptible to seasonal flooding, the higher banks are stony and infertile and land has to be acquired within the old city to be able to link both banks of the Isar. The work finally starts in 1856 to build the terraces designed by Carl von Effner, the Senior Court Gardener between Haidhausen and Bogenhausen later known as the Maximiliansanlage or Max Gardens. Before this work had started in 1850 with the laying out of the Maximilianstrasse, a royal avenue, intended to beautify the city. This Beautiful Street starts at a large public square next to the Residence in front of the State Theatre and runs in a straight line to a bridge across the Isar to culminate in a roundel with at its centre the Maximilianeum (1857-74) originally a school for the gifted, now the State Parliament of Bavaria.Many of the buildings along this axis were designed or supervised by Friedrich Bürklein who worked in an eclectic style mixing elements from gothic and classicist architecture. The Gasteig Gardens directly south of the Maximilianeum were an integral part of the whole design.

The central axis of the Maximiliansanlage is formed by the Maximiliansstrasse linking the Maximilianeum (8) and the Max-Josef-Platz (1)  in front of the Bayerisch National Theater (2) across the Isar via the Maximiliansbrücke (7). At the start of the Beautiful Street Stadtpaläste (3) where built as an urban residence for landed gentry. The section that cut through the hitherto semirural area of Lehel was laid out with a central public garden with the Maxmonument (6) that started formally at the Maximiliansbauten (4) and ended at the Maximilianeum. Along the street the Völkerkundemuseum (5) was built. The waterlevel in the Isar is regulated by the Pumping House or Maxwerk (9) that sits on the Auer Mühlbach.

These Gasteig Gardens have since been merged into the Maximilian Gardens the 30 hectare park on the eastern bank of the Isar directly adjacent to the old city. At the heart of this landscape park stands the Prince Regent Terrace with a grotto and dolphin fountain that was commissioned by and named after Luitpold of Bavaria who was Regent for his nephews the incapable Louis II and Otto, both sons of Max II. Luitpold had revived a plan from 1852 for a northern Beautiful Street parallel to the Maximilianstrasse. First building work started on the focal point across the Isar (constructed between 1888 and 1894). In 1891 a new street was laid out between this viewing platform with fountain and the Prinz Carl Palais. In remembrance of the 25 years of peace after the Franco-German war of 1870/71 a monument was commissioned to be built atop the Prince Regent's Terrace in the shape of a small temple  underneath a column topped by an edifice of the Angel of Peace (Friedensengel). In 1996 the first stone was laid with the festive reveal on July 16 1899. This monument dwarfed the original viewing terraces and is still the point de vue of the Prinzregentenstrasse. In contrast to the axial interventions of his predecessors Luitpold's Beautiful Street, eponymously named Prinzregentstrasse, was not to be linked with official buildings, institutions and the like, but was designed as the focus of a fashionable residential area for the elite, much like Hausmann's axial interventions in Paris (carried out between 1853 an 1870).

The second Beautiful Street completed the axial intervention bridging the Isar and thus completing the intended Maximiliansanlage (B). The northern Beautiful Street runs close to the Englisher Garten (A) and the Hirschanger (A*), with the Prinz Carl Palais (1) functioning as a spatial anchor point between this public park, the new street and the Hofgarten (C) of the Munich Residence. The new axis  of the Prinzregentstrasse runs across the Prinzregentenbrücke (2) towards the Prinzregententerasse (3) with the Friedensengel (4). Contrary to its original plan the street is imbedded in many imitations: Bayerisch Nationalmuseum (5), Statsministerium (6), Haus der Kunst (7), Statskanzlei (8) and Innenministerium Bayern (9). The Deutches Museum (D)  was added in 1925 as a separate non-axial intervention on an island in the Isar.

Besides these royal axial interventions, the new additions to Munich were commissioned and built by private developers. These suburbs all have a Paris-inspired layout with a contorted grid of streets bisected by streets radiating from a square or public garden as the focus of the new quarter. Plots in these suburbs were sold to individuals for building large urban villa's on them or to investors who would have fancy mansion blocks and terraces built. These suburbs are known as: Isarvorstadt (E), Auvorstadt (F) and Ludwigvorstadt (G).