Ornamental kitchen gardens Conference: The past and future of the garden heritage of castles, palaces, manor houses and religious centres
Initiated and organised by the Hungarian Garden Heritage Foundation, a conference entitled Ornamental kitchen gardens. The past and future of the garden heritage of castles, palaces, manor houses and religious centres,and a related workshop will be held in Budapest, Hungary, between the 21st and 23rd of April 2022.
- Main organiser: Hungarian Garden Heritage Foundation
- Co-organiser: Várkapitányság
- Partners:
Hungarian Association of Landscape Architects, The Institute of Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning and Garden Art of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences
- Date: the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of April 2022 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
- Venue: Budapest, Várkert Bazár Event Hall
Credits are offered for members of professional chambers for their participation.
The theme of the Conference is relevant from several aspects and fills a gap in many ways. The research, planning, restoration, maintenance, management and visitor management of European garden heritage, gardens of historic value and historic sites of garden heritage, as well as establishing the economic and legal framework for all these, is quite a complex task. It raises many theoretical and practical questions for the experts, operators, owners and right holders who are working to conserve and develop this heritage. It is increasingly evident that, in addition to creating the necessary financial resources, all these participants are striving to address the existing shortage of professionals, the more and more apparent impacts of the climate change as well as the citizens’ passivity and resistance to change, realising the importance
of this living heritage as not only places of cultural continuity, but also as an opportunity for people to spend time in a nature bearing the signs of culture, where recreation and learning take place in the same space. It is important to share experiences, to exchange ideas, and to co-operate both on a European and global level. Today, there is a growing emphasis on the conservation, restoration, and maintenance of not only ornamental gardens but also historic kitchen gardens and the utilisation of the crops produced in these gardens. The involvement of locals and volunteers is more and more common, and the interest of tourists also seems to be growing in this direction.
The purpose of the event is to discuss, with the involvement of renowned Hungarian and international experts, not only the issues of research and planning but also the current aspects of the maintenance and management of these gardens with a prominent position and characteristics, the questions of education and volunteering and those of the career and social recognition of gardeners, the themes and practices of garden programmes, the latest trends of ecological sustainability as well as the organisational, legal and economic framework for all these, and also to explore the opportunities for their widest possible use. In addition to their historic role, the preserved historic vegetable and fruit varieties as well as today’s ecological challenges and tourism-related aspects will also be discussed, as recent trends show a growing interest in historic gardens and their cultural message, however, these garden s must be restored and operated in the context of the present.
Programme of the Conference: lectures and case studies will be presented to the audience in themornings, while in the afternoons we will look for answers to practical
questions collected earlier and share our experiences together in the framework of workshops, using the World Café method. The answers to the questions raised at the conference and the related findings will be collected and laid down in a summary document on the last day of the conference, which will be available to assist anyone
engaged in garden heritage in any manner. In the meantime, participants will also be able to learn more about the renovation works of the Castle Gardens (both the gardens already realised and the ones that are still in the planning phase) managed by the Várkapitányság, the organisation in charge of management of the heritage assets of the Buda Castle area. Detailed programme is available here http://www.magyarkertorokseg.hu/en/diszes-haszonkertek-konferencia-program/
Entrance fees
- One-day (Thursday or Friday): adult HUF 25.000, student HUF 10.000
- Two-day (Thursday and Friday): adult HUF 38.000, student HUF 15.000
- Professional programme on Saturday: HUF 10.000 (standard)
- Events in the entrance hall: free of charge
- Thursday evening presentation: HUF 3.000 (included in Thursday day
- ticket)
For registration and further details, please contact regisztracio@magyarkertorokseg.hu
In addition to the professional event, some of the programmes will be open to the general public. The programmes include an evening performance and concert, a graphic art exhibition and a workshop on botanical drawing, a creative workshop, a children’s story corner, a travelling nature trail on life sciences, a gene bank demonstration and a poster exhibition of historic gardens and kitchen gardens from Hungary and abroad.
