Summer Primate's Palace

The Archbishops of Esztergom, who were forced to move to the city of Nagyszombat after the Turkish occupation of our capital, naturally built a residence in the new Hungarian capital, Bratislava, close to Vienna and the government offices. ; The land of today's palace was purchased by Archbishop Ferenc Forgách at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries and - according to assumptions - on the site of today's palace, he created the Pozsony Garden, which later became justly famous, the country's first scientifically described arboretum. ; The archbishop's seat could probably have been here from 1614. Archbishop György Lippai had a new, late Renaissance palace built here between 1642 and 1666 and also developed the garden. Through the mediation of György Lippai, his younger brother János also came to Bratislava, who became the head of the garden. Here, the garden and horticulture became his life's purpose. In addition to practical gardening, he also dealt with the scientific and theoretical issues of the profession at a level appropriate to his time, and in many cases far exceeding them. He was familiar with the works of Eastern, Greek and Roman economic writers, but also with the professional literature of his time. The latter were Western European - mostly Latin-language professional works, which primarily contained botanical, horticultural and medicinal descriptions. Between 1761-65. on the orders of Archbishop Barkóczy, the palace was rebuilt and expanded in the late Baroque style based on the plans of the architect Franz Anton Hillebrand, creating the main features of its present appearance. ; The three-storey, Baroque palace is a building with a regular, angular "C" floor plan. Its most prominent part is the central part located in the axis, highlighted with a projection and a high mansard roof, where the main entrance also opens. ; The building lost a lot of its decorations during the historic renovation that took place in the second half of the 20th century. The green area to the east, which once formed an organic visual unit with it, was transformed into a tragic concrete jungle called Szabadság tér during the socialist era. A modern office building - also of dubious architectural value - was built in the park to the north of the palace. ; Today, the palace houses the office of the Government of the Slovak Republic, so it cannot be visited. ; In addition to practical gardening, János Lippai also dealt with scientific and theoretical issues of the profession, in many cases at a level far beyond his time. He was familiar with the works of Eastern, Greek and Roman economic writers, but also with the professional literature of his time. He saw the disadvantages of unmodern farming well. Therefore, he considered it necessary to write descriptive economic works based on his experiences that could help more modern, more practical farming. ; ; The Posoni Garden ; It consists of three volumes, thus covering the entire spectrum of plant production. ; The first volume was published under the title Virágos kert in 1664, the second volume Veteményes kert also from 1664, and the third Gyümölcsös kert, which was published in Vienna in 1667. ; In these volumes, he described the plants of the Bratislava archbishop's garden and the practical and cultivation work related to them based on his own experiences, seasoning them with his comments and analyses. ; In addition to the beauties of the old language, we can enrich ourselves with many useful information for everyone today if we read the volumes. ; ; Virágos kert ; In the volume entitled Virágos kert, we get a true-to-the-time picture of the layout of the ornamental gardens of the 17th century and their maintenance, which he also illustrated well with illustrations. Almost 150 species of ornamental plants were cultivated and cared for in the garden. He presented these grouped according to their cultivation similarities, describing each work process in detail. ; ; Veteményes kert ; In this volume, we can learn about vegetable cultivation. In a separate chapter, he dealt with the connections between horticultural seed sowing and the changes of the moon. In addition to seed sowing, he described the practical work of all vegetable species. He was the first in our country to list the method of “Remedies against the enemies of crops”, and thus laid the foundations of horticultural plant protection. In addition, we can read about preservation issues and information about medicinal herbs in the volume. . ; ; Gyümölcsös kert ; The last part of his work, the Gyümölcsös kert, was only published after his death, with the help of his nephew György Lippai Jr., in Vienna in 1667. In this volume, he described the work of orchards and nurseries. ; From the volume we can learn about the vegetative propagation possibilities of trees, the different grafting methods. He gave a detailed list of the varieties of each fruit species, including the Hungarian varieties. Thus, he distinguished 4 gooseberries, 3 currants, 4 apricots, 6 peaches, 10 plums, 23 apples, 26 pears, 4 sour cherries and 6 cherry varieties. In this way, he created the first Hungarian variety encyclopedia. His variety descriptions are the results of his own observations. In addition, he described the methods and possibilities of growing and using each fruit species. He touched on plant protection, the storage of ripe fruits and their processing. ; ; About the author ; János Lippai was born in Bratislava on November 1, 1606. He studied in schools in Bratislava and then in Vienna, and in 1624 he entered the Jesuit order. His excellent philological knowledge enabled him to lecture on oriental languages at the universities of Graz and Vienna. He returned to Hungary in 1643. He first administered the college in Győr, then led the convent in Trenčín. ; His eldest brother György Lippai was Archbishop of Esztergom for 24 years, an outstanding personality of his time, he founded the law faculty of the University of Nagyszombat, and is credited with the further development and transformation of the Archbishop's Garden in Bratislava, established in the second half of the 16th century, which gained European fame with its beauty and the richness of its plants. ; According to Lippai, the garden is “the starry sky served on earth”, which “gives new life, provides strength, chases away sorrow and pain”.