**1. Introduction**

Rediscovering the scenic value of the landscape has Renaissance roots, and recognizing the aesthetic value of the landscape can be traced in the Renaissance landscape and garden descriptions. The Renaissance image of the world through the conscious observation of nature brings a new chapter in the relationship between man and his environment: he does not only observe the landscape but also perceives its atmosphere and puts his experience of the landscape into words and pictures. Being part of the landscape, the garden belongs to the humanistic approach to life, as a real living space, and as an embodiment of beauty and harmony. The virtual expansion of the garden limits takes place: humanists consciously link the prospect of the landscape into the garden sight, and since then, this has become a consistently applied landscape composition tool—just as in the case of Baroque gardens and landscaped gardens [1–4].

The deliberate shaping of large-scale (landscape) visual connections started already in the Baroque but was accomplished in the Carpathian Basin in the landscaped gardens of the 19th century. The "picturesque" evokes the ideals of the early Enlightenment, a symbolically perceived part of the world. In this period, conscious artistic space organisation resulted in a number of spatial compositions using less functional than picturesque artificial elements (sculptures, buildings, decorations, etc.) in order to create atmosphere or staffage. These prominent design elements used as a compositional

center, which also served as signals and had a symbolic meaning, marked the focal points of the visual axes [5–9].

Regardless of the era, however, it can be stated that during modern garden history, the most important compositional goal of the creators was always the design of a garden image and that of the sight of the garden in time and space; also, the creation of ideal visual links between the garden and the landscape, that is, the view meant to fascinate.

The creation and display of landscape elements is the result of a creative and conscious spatial arrangement. These elements vary depending on whether they are natural or built elements, and from this difference, a different cultural value ensues. Thus, the visual connections ensuring their display are, in some cases, difficult to acknowledge; occasionally, they even transmit different messages to different segments of the society. That is also a reason why cautious and thorough interpretation is needed when assessing their aesthetic value: alongside the examination of the physical appearance, the analysis of the emotions and of the atmosphere evoked by the landscape is also essential [10,11].

The castle garden has thousand-fold connections to its surroundings. At the time of its formation, it was not a simple ornamental garden but featured as an indispensable part of a complex, cultural-historical, ecological and—last but not least—economic system. That is what made it possible for the garden to function in the long run and be sustainable at the same time. Thus, the subject matter of the study is a consciously planned ecological-technical system, both historic and artistic, which can only be interpreted if we embed it into its wider environment. The potential of views and visual axes were taken as features that greatly determined the image of the small area forming the wider environment of the castle park. The statement that "the aristocratic mansion-park ensembles can be considered as a model situation from which the plant and knowledge elements of the model were democratically dispersed on the palace-castle-yard-civic house-farmhouse line" also emphasises the landscape and settlement character of the castle garden, as well as its role in defining the structure [12]. Therefore, when we renew our long-standing gardens while respecting the circumstances of their formation, we need to re-interpret not only the garden itself and its internal relations but their relationship and complex system of connections with the countryside and society as well.

The restoration of the visual axes defining historical compositions is one of the most important tools for the renewal of the historic garden and landscape structure. The paper illustrates and emphasises the essence of restoring the view, and shows that the results of several-decades-long research on the subject can be applied in specific design situations and locations with various features.
