On public participation in efforts to beautify the towns and cities of Galicia in times of its autonomy. Prolegomenon

Abstract

This paper is an introduction to studies of Urban Beautification Societies (“UBSs” in the plural) active in times of Galicia’s autonomy (1867–1914). The Societies were community organisations set up in many cities and towns across Galicia from the 1880s onwards with a view to improve the aesthetic in public urban space. To Galicia, years of its autonomy yielded years of considerable expansion of civic freedoms, including the re-enacted right to association. Formed by individuals with university education, UBSs were popular throughout Galicia, their structure frequently reflecting the local cross-section and specificity of social strata. Established in large, medium-sized, and small cities and towns (such as Cracow and Lviv; Przemyśl; Wadowice and Wieliczka), they attempted to reach their goals chiefly through establishing urban parks and green squares (often as not with accompanying infrastructure, such as tennis courts or bowling alleys); planting trees in market and other public squares and along communication routes; developing aesthetically pleasing small architecture; and taking initiative to erect monuments and install commemorative plaques, usually commissioned with eminent artists. The latter – in large cities in particular, where art communities were large and powerful – were occasionally UBS co-organisers and members, and thus capable of considerable influence over any Society activities, potentially including publishing, graphic artists and painters especially prominent therein.