Matthias Corvinus’s gardens at the Vienna Hofburg

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the gardens of the Vienna Hofburg during the reign of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus (r. 1485–1490). The prevailing view in the literature to date has been that Corvinus made no changes to these gardens during this time, but hitherto overlooked period sources, namely two texts written by the Italian humanist Antonio Bonfini, indicate that opposite is true. They show that Corvinus had aviaries, a pavilion, fountains, covered porticoes, and baths built in the garden along with a loggia, probably figuring in a town plan drawn up by Bonifaz Wohlmut in 1547, was located in the southeast part of the gardens. The gardens likely influenced the appearance of other Central European projects, specifically the garden that Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, created in Lochau around 1500 and in the Royal Garden of Prague Castle, established by Ferdinand I in 1534. Because Corvinus during his earlier garden and villa projects in Hungary commissioned Italian masters, bringing for the first time to Central Europe the Renaissance forms, it is perhaps right to suggest that he continued this practice also in Vienna. This would shed new light on the process of the development of Renaissance architecture outside of Italy.