I. Allées in Baroque Garden Design and the Allée-heritage of Historical Hungary

The allée is a planned, living landscape or garden architectural element that consists of trees planted in one or more rows, mainly of the same taxon, along a regular line, and in a specific rhythm. Its design and order reflect the composition intended by the designer, considering the growth rate of the trees. Allées induce movement and have an intensive impression, they are tools of strict architectural order and open the vue. Early cultures abound of examples, in modern times the Renaissance garden design used allées to frame garden parterres and esplanades. From the second half of the 17th century, allées of the early Baroque gardens went beyond their borders, revealing the vistas, connecting and organising the royal or lordly estate. Following German and French examples, Baroque art emerged in Hungary only in the 18th century after the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), which ended the Turkish era. Due to the political and social system, monumental allées full of character appeared in and around Vienna, Bratislava, and partly Pest-Buda. However, the fashion of the Baroque garden style became outdated and gave way to the spirit of classicism and the culture of the landscape garden, which meant the transformation or reformation of the architectural spatial structure and garden elements. Furthermore, changes in land use system severely threatened the large, landscape-scale allées. Still, there are fortunate survivors of garden and landscape allées, which have a unique cultural and landscape value, and with the ancient trees of the original allée still standing, they also represent a natural, genetic heritage. As a result, these surviving Baroque allées embody the living cultural heritage. This article consists of two parts, in which we present the introduction and evaluation of these existing Baroque allées, based on almost 15 years of research. We carried out the garden architectural and horticultural survey of the landscape-scale allée in Nagycenk twice, in 2011 and in 2018, and we finished the reconstruction concept plan and the first phase of the renovation between 2018 and 2022. We also designed the renovation plan of the Baroque allées in the Fertőd Esterházy Palace gardens in 2020. The author participated in these works as a coordinator. In the following years, the research continued with the definition of the Hungarian Baroque allée heritage – based on literary sources, historical maps, aerial photographs, and the on-site visit of the significant allées. The purpose of this article is to provide and summarise our historical allée heritage, while the analysis of international and domestic examples of allée renewal will be published in the second part of the article. Today, due to the climate challenges of the 21st century, allée protection and reconstruction may also require new approaches and methods.