Gardens of the Feudal era. European Middle Ages. Medieval gardens Feudal type of gardens

Spring is the time of discovery summer season. For gardeners and vegetable gardeners these days, gardening and vegetable gardening goods are in high demand, and, having purchased the necessary equipment, summer residents go to their garden plots. Today it is fashionable to landscape areas in style - to plant exotic plants, put up sculptures, dig artificial reservoirs. However, few people know that in the Middle Ages, gardens were real works of art.

Medieval gardens

In the Middle Ages, the work of a gardener was likened to the work of a book writer. It was believed that the garden should be read like a book, benefiting from it.

As a rule, gardens in the Middle Ages were laid out in monasteries and castles. At that time, flowers and some fruits could only be found there. The monastery courtyard was built in accordance with a strict layout and included a garden, a vegetable garden with even rectangular beds, and sometimes a pond was built for growing fish. Such an ensemble was called the courtyard of paradise. In the Garden of Eden, fenced off from prying eyes, ornamental plants were grown, medicinal herbs and fruit bushes.

Many decorative techniques in the Middle Ages they borrowed from antiquity. The principle of regularity dominated both the architectural compositions and the structure green spaces. Sculptures, fountains, cascades, baskets and grottoes played an important role in the design of the gardens.

The construction of gardens and parks in Italy was influenced by the work of such masters as Bramante, Raphael and Palladio.

Gardens and villas at that time formed a single ensemble. One of the most famous architectural and park works of the Renaissance was the Villa Madama. Giulio Medici chose a picturesque hillside overlooking Rome for this villa. The initial design of the villa was prepared by Rafael Santi. Despite the complex landscape, the famous architect harmoniously surrounded the villa with a terraced garden.

Another masterpiece of that time is Villa Fornese. The architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola accurately calculated the proportions of the Fornese garden and was able to make advantageous use of the natural topography of the area.

During that era, Italy inspired creative searches in other European countries. Thus, in France, under Italian influence in the 16th century, the Fontainebleau gardens were created near the Royal Palace, in early XVII century - Luxembourg Garden near the Luxembourg Palace.

Characteristics of the artistic culture of the Middle Ages. Features of a medieval garden: changes in functions and purposes, symbolic and miniature character, originality of decorative elements. Garden and book in the Middle Ages. “Flowers” ​​of St. Francis of Assisi.

Three types of medieval gardens: monastic; Moorish and feudal.

Monastery gardens - their layout and main features. Symbolism of the monastery garden. Typology of monastery gardens: orchards, vegetable gardens, flower garden for church services, apothecary gardens. Vertograd is a decorative monastery garden.

Italy is the ancestor of monastic and botanical gardens. Gardens of the Benedictine Order, elements of Roman gardening art: symmetry, priority of utilitarian function. The monastery-palace character of the gardens under Charlemagne (768-814). Garden of the Gallen monastery (Switzerland, 820). Monastery gardens of France, England.

Literary monuments of medieval gardening. Albert of Bolshtead (1193-1280) and his treatise on gardening.

Topic 14. Gardens and parks of the Middle Ages - Moorish and feudal gardens

Moorish gardens (patios), their origin, specific features and decorative elements. Types of Moorish gardens: internal and external. Ensembles in Granada, Toledo, Cardova (XI - XIII centuries). Alhambra is a miracle of Spanish-Moorish architecture. Alhambra Gardens: Myrtle Garden, Lion Garden, etc. Alcazar Ensemble in Seville.

Feudal gardens are the gardens of castles and fortresses. Kremlin garden of Frederick II (1215-1258) in Nuremberg. Gardens of the Fortress Palace in Budapest. Rosengartens. French Royal Gardens of the 15th century. “The garden is an earthly paradise” (Dante’s “Divine Comedy”).

City gardens of the pre-Medicine era. The emergence and development of Botanical Gardens: 1525 - Pisa Botanical Garden- the first in Europe; Botanical gardens in Padua (1545), Bologna, Florence, Rome; 1597 - the first botanical garden in France; in Germany in Leiden (1577), in Wurzburg (1578), in Leipzig (1579).

Classification of gardening as a “liberal arts” (1415, Germany, Ausburg). Fugger Garden (Germany). Nuremberg Gardens. Creation of the crowned “Floral Order” (1644, Germany).

Transforming a utilitarian garden into a “funny” one. Gardens of the late Middle Ages. “Gardens of love” and “gardens of pleasures”. Vegetation and decoration of gardens. Garden life. Boccaccio "Decameron".

The transition from the gardens of the Middle Ages to the gardens of the Renaissance.

Topic 15. Landscape art of the Renaissance in Italy.

Renaissance culture. Nature in the literature and philosophy of the Renaissance. The concept of nature in L. Alberti’s treatise “On Painting”. Landscape in Italian Renaissance poetry. Nature in Italian utopias of the late Renaissance. The concept of “Natura” in the worldview of F. Petrarch.

Three stages in the development of Italian gardens: XIV - XV centuries - gardens of the early Renaissance (Florentine period); XV- end XVI centuries - the Roman period; XVI - XVII centuries - Baroque gardens.

Types of Italian gardens: a). terraced; b). educational; V). medical; G). palace gardens; d). villa gardens; e). botanical.

Florentine gardens of the early Renaissance, their compositional structure. Planning unity of garden compositions, creation of “ideal” nature. Villa Careggi (1430 - 1462, architect Micolozzo).

XV - XVI centuries - the century of medical culture. Medical gardens, their characteristics. Gardens at the villas Lante, Borghese, Albani, Madama and others. Villa Medici in Fiesollo (1457). Humanistic traditions of ancient Rome. Connection of an educational institution and a garden. Italian societies. Florentine Platonic Academy (1459). Sal San Marco is an academy and museum of ancient sculpture.

Garden of the Villa d'Este in Tivoli (16th century), architect Pirro Ligorio. Its layout, basic artistic and compositional techniques. Villa d'Este is a masterpiece of landscape gardening art of the Renaissance, its distinctive features: the completeness of each individual plot and the integrity of the overall composition; thoughtful consistency and variety of perception.

Characteristic features of Renaissance gardens: a new appeal to antiquity; secularization of the symbolic-allegorical system of landscape art; expansion of the architectural side of the gardens. Lightness and historicity of the symbolism of Renaissance gardens. Unity of gardens and natural landscape.

16th century - gardening of the popes. Strengthening the pomp and intellectual element in Renaissance gardening art. Belvedere Courtyard.

At the end of the 4th century. the brilliant era of antiquity with its
completed her career in sciences, art, and architecture
existence, giving way new era feudalism.
Period
time,
numbering
millennium between the fall of Rome (end of the 4th century) and
the Renaissance in Italy (XIV century), called
the Middle Ages, or the Middle Ages. It was
time
formation
European
states,
permanent internecine wars and uprisings, time
affirmations of Christianity.
In the history of architecture, the Middle Ages are divided into
three periods: early medieval (IV-IX centuries),
Romanesque (X-XII centuries), Gothic (late XII-XIV centuries).

Change architectural styles not significantly
is reflected in park construction, since during this period
gardening art, which is the most
vulnerable of all forms of art and more than others
requiring peaceful existence for its existence
situation, suspends its development. It
exists in the form of small gardens at monasteries and
castles, i.e. in territories relatively
protected from destruction.
The Middle Ages period, which lasted
almost a thousand years, did not leave exemplary gardens, did not
created his own gothic style garden architecture.

Types of gardens:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Monastery Garden
Castle gardens or feudal gardens
“Meadows of Flowers” ​​– for tournaments and social fun
"Gardens of Love"

Medieval gardens in Europe have shrunk significantly
sizes compared to the ancient ones, their
appointment. Decorative, walking gardens have become large
rarity and have shrunk to tiny areas sandwiched among
powerful walls of feudal castles and monasteries. These gardens
were mainly used for growing fruit and
medicinal plants.

Monastery Garden
The gardens started first
arise
only
V
monasteries.
Medieval
monasteries
represented
are centers of science and
art
feudal
peace. Being relatively
protected
from
destruction
in
time
numerous
medieval wars and civil strife they became centers in
which remained and to some extent developed,
park art. Here semantics were developed
the concept of an ideal garden - paradise.

Monastery gardens were compositionally associated with
architecture of the buildings surrounding it and were filled
symbolism reflecting the knowledge of God by the human soul -
The Garden of Eden is a garden planted by God, sinless, holy,
abundant in everything that a person needs - this is an indispensable and
characteristic feature is the presence in the garden of everything that can
bring joy not only to the eye, but also to hearing, smell, taste,
touch - all human senses. Flowers fill paradise
colors and fragrance. Fruits serve not only as decoration,
equal to the colors, but also delight the taste. Birds not only announce
the garden by singing, but also decorate it with their colorful appearance, etc.
This original paradise was surrounded by a fence, behind which
God expelled Adam and Eve after their fall. Therefore the main
"significant" feature Garden of Eden- its enclosure.
Such a garden was often called "hortus conclusus" - " indoor garden".

Limited area determined small dimensions
monastery gardens. They were characterized by a rectangular
layout of leveled courtyards, closed from
surrounding "sinful world". Garden layout and plants in
it, were endowed with allegorical (religious) symbolism. Garden,
separated by walls from sin and the intervention of dark forces, became
symbol of the Garden of Eden.
The monastery courtyard, usually square, was divided into narrow
paths crosswise into four square parts (which
had symbolic meaning– a cross formed by paths,
was supposed to remind of the torment of Christ). In the center, on
at the intersection of paths, a well or fountain was built, like
a symbol of purity of faith and inexhaustible grace.
Often the central place was occupied by the “tree of life” or
"tree of knowledge" - tree of paradise– small orange
tree or apple tree - a symbol of the loss of the paradise state -
a symbol of the unity of good and evil, for the fruits of good and evil grow on it
evil.

According to their purpose, the gardens were divided into apothecary gardens with
all kinds of herbs and medicinal plants, kitchen
vegetable gardens with vegetable crops for the needs of the monastery and fruit
gardens. Small Orchard inside the monastery courtyard was
symbol of heaven. It often included a monastic
cemetery.

Monasteries at that time were, perhaps, the only
place where they provided medical care, both monks and
and pilgrims. Cultivation of medicinal plants has become
an important concern of medieval gardeners. Pharmaceutical
the garden was usually located in patios, Near
a doctor's house, a monastery hospital or an almshouse. IN
Both medicinal and ornamental plants were grown there.
plants, as well as plants that could serve
dyes. Flowering and fragrant plants brought
the beauty of apothecary beds. But beautiful flowering plants
not much was bred in the Middle Ages, there was not enough for them
places in gloomy castles and cramped cities. On small
patches of land, sparingly illuminated by the sun due to high walls
and roofs, only a few favorites were grown
plants...

In the herb gardens grew lilies, gladioli, rosemary, mint,
sage, rue and others useful species plants, which also
they were also beautiful. The aesthetic principle was present in
everything that was in the garden, and here you could also find beds
with vegetables, fragrant herbs, flowers,
berry bushes, fruit trees- all this happened
necessary for monks who had their own household and
provided themselves with everything they needed.
It is noteworthy that the healing properties of plants in early
The Middle Ages was defined very simply: it was believed that
the plant itself, by its shape, shows which organs or parts
it heals the body.

For example, wormwood, which looks like a curl, was thought to be a remedy for headaches; hairy dill and asparagus
help strengthen hair; roses and daisies, several
resembling the eye, cure eye diseases; sorrel,
similar to a tongue, it heals, and the lily of the valley with flowers,
resembling a drop, is an excellent remedy for paralysis...

Since there were few gardens in the Middle Ages, grown
plants were highly valued and strictly protected. Certificate
how much attention was paid to gardens and flowers,
serves as a rescript of 812, in which Charlemagne ordered
about the flowers that need to be planted in his gardens. Rescript
contained a list of about sixty flower names and
ornamental plants. This list has been rewritten and
then spread throughout monasteries throughout Europe.
Certain laws were also established against those
who spoiled or destroyed plants. According to the law
time, a person who spoiled a grafted tree was threatened
burning your toes. And sometimes the one guilty of damaging someone else's
gardens were nailed to the pillory, cut off right hand And
condemned to eternal exile.

The main feature of the monastery type of gardens was their
solitude, contemplation, silence, utilitarianism.
Some monastery gardens were decorated with trellis
gazebos, low walls to separate one area from
another.

Among the monastery gardens, the St. Gallen Garden in Switzerland was especially famous.
Monastery of Saint Gall, located in the Swiss
city ​​of St. Gallen, was in the Middle Ages one of the largest
Benedictine monasteries in Europe, founded in 613 by St.
Gallom.
The monastery library of medieval times has been preserved here.
manuscripts, which has 160 thousand storage units and
reputed to be one of the most complete in Europe. One of the most
interesting exhibits is the "Plan of Saint Gall",
compiled at the beginning of the 9th century and representing
an idealized picture of a medieval monastery (this
the only architectural plan surviving from the early
Middle Ages).

"Plan of Saint Gall"

Plan of the medieval monastery of St. Gall
1. The doctor's house.
2. Garden of medicinals
plants.
3.
Monastic
courtyard - cloister.
4. Orchard and
cemetery.
5. Vegetable garden.
6.
Household
ponds.

Cloister (from Latin Claustrum - closed place) - covered
a bypass gallery framing a closed rectangular courtyard
or indoor garden monastery Usually the cloister was located
along the wall of the building, while one of its walls was blank, and
the second was an arcade or colonnade. Often a cloister
They also called the open courtyard itself, surrounded by a gallery.

In the Middle Ages, the cloister courtyard certainly had
in the center there was a well, from which there were paths dividing
yard space into quadrants. The cloister was usually attached
to the long southern façade of the cathedral. One of the first images
The cloister can be seen on the plan of the St. Gallen monastery in Switzerland.
The cloister was the center of life of the monastery, its
main communication center, place of meditation and scholarship
work. The cloister played significant role like a place
solemn processions at Easter or Christmas.

The labyrinth garden is another technique that was formed in
monastery gardens and took a strong place in
subsequent park construction.
If the Romans used the labyrinth motif in decoration
mosaics and frescoes, Christians turned it into a symbol
obstacles to salvation. Labyrinths were often found in
interior of churches. In the Middle Ages for penitent pilgrims
on the floor of the temple, mosaic spirally winding paths were laid out, along which believers were supposed to
walk on your knees from the entrance to the temple to the altar along all the bends and
turns of the labyrinth. This punishment was imposed for
atonement for their sins for those who could not commit
pilgrimage to holy places.

In the future, from performing a tedious ritual in
church labyrinths have turned to walks in gardens, where paths
separated by walls of trimmed hedges.
Occupying a small area, such a labyrinth created
the impression of an endless length of paths and gave the opportunity
take long walks. They say in such labyrinths
the hatches of the secret underground passage were hidden. Maybe,
This is exactly the kind of labyrinth Jeff Saward wrote about in his book
“...the labyrinth is perceived as an island of calm in
chaotic world, a quiet place intended for reflection and
contemplation. The winding path of the labyrinth invites
visitor to clear your mind, refresh your soul, moderate your ardor,
slow down..."

Labyrinth gardens

Subsequently
labyrinth gardens
got
wide
distribution in regular and even landscape parks in Europe.
In Russia there was such a labyrinth Summer Garden(not preserved), in
regular part of Pavlovsk Park (restored) and the park
Sokolniki, where its roads looked like intertwined ellipses,
inscribed in the spruce massif (lost).

Modern labyrinth gardens

Castle gardens or feudal type of gardens.
Gardens in castles had a special character. Feudal
the gardens, unlike the monastery ones, were smaller,
located inside castles and fortresses - were small
and closed. Flowers were grown here, there was a source -
a well, sometimes a miniature pool or fountain, and almost
always a bench in the form of a ledge covered with turf - a technique
which subsequently became widespread in
parks. They had covered alleys of grapes,
rose gardens, apple trees were grown, as well as flowers planted
in flower beds according to special designs.

Castle Gardens

Castle Gardens
were
usually
under
special
supervision of the hostess
castle
And
served
small
an oasis
peace of mind
among
noisy
crowds
inhabitants
castle,
filled
his
yards.
Here
same
were grown
How
medicinal herbs,
and poisonous, herbs for decoration and having symbolic
meaning. Special attention was given fragrant herbs.

Their aroma answered
ideas
O
heaven,
delightful
All
feelings
person, but another reason for them
cultivation was that
castles and cities, due to
low sanitary conditions,
were full of bad odors. IN
medieval gardens were planted
roses taken by the crusaders
from the Middle East.
In the first centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, roses
Europe, classified as pagan, wicked, sinful
luxury were destroyed, and only a century later again
appeared in the gardens.

Plants with valuable
healing
properties
become in the Middle Ages
basis
spirits
And
cosmetic
funds.
Such kindergartens were called
gardens of “scientific women”,
who invented the first
aromatic drugs. IN
countries
Europe
V
Middle Ages people almost
didn't wash and to beat off
smell, smeared themselves
odorous
mixtures
from
dozens of ingredients, so
the first perfumes appeared.

“Sweet-smelling” plants were grown - roses, lilies,
primroses, violets, cornflowers, - not only for use in
rituals, decorations, but even in foods. Violets were added
in salads. Primrose, violets, rose petals and hawthorn in
mixtures with honey and sugar constituted a favorite delicacy.
First mention of flower garden roses and violets
dates back to approximately 1000.

It was at this time that such decorative
elements such as flower beds, trellises, pergolas, there is a fashion for
potted plants. Aromatic plants, flowers and exotic indoor plants were grown in pots.
plants that came to Europe after the Crusades.
More extensive gardens were created at the castles of large feudal lords
not only for utilitarian purposes, but also for recreation.

Near the defensive fortifications of the castle,
“meadows of flowers” ​​– gardens for tournaments and social fun.

Big
fame
enjoyed
gardens
Emperor Charlemagne
(768-814), they were divided into
utilitarian and “funny”.
"Funny"
gardens
decorated
lawns,
flowers,
low
trees,
birds
And
menagerie.
In the late Middle Ages
“gardens of love” appeared:
gardens intended for
love
privacy,
dates, and also just for
recreation
from
noisy
court life.

Such gardens were in
small pools in the center
For
bathing.
Here
played music, had conversations,
read
books,
danced
played various games.
Nice image
such
"garden
love"
preserved in miniature
"Garden of Pleasures" Young
people bathe in the Fountain
Youth", drinking wine and
enjoying
music.
A joint
bathing
V
small pools for men
and women quite often
depicted in medieval
miniatures.

Bathing together
small
swimming pools
men
And
women
enough
often
depicted
V
medieval
miniatures: apparently
there was nothing in it
amazing in conditions
"municipal"
life
medieval castles and
cities where solitude
was welcome, but not
always available.

Basic
objects
gardening
art
Middle Ages:
- monastery gardens
- internal cloister gardens,
- pharmaceutical gardens,
- fruit (paradise) gardens,
- labyrinth gardens
- feudal gardens
- decorative and utilitarian gardens,
- amusing gardens,
- pleasure groves (flower meadow and garden of love).
The Middle Ages were characterized by the use of achievements
ancient natural science and theory of gardening art and
their further improvement. We can highlight the following
peculiarities
gardening
construction
Middle Ages:
geometric layout of internal gardens; privates
planting and pruning trees; labyrinth; symbolism.

Laboratory and practical work No. 3
"Plan of the medieval monastery of St. Gall."
style features:
5. Vegetable garden.
6. Economic ponds.
axial construction;
usage
symmetry;
formation
closed
compositions
essential elements:
1. The doctor's house.
2. Garden of medicinals
plants.
3. Cloister.
4. Orchard and
cemetery

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Monastery Gardens

In the Middle Ages, the main role in setting up gardens was played by monasteries, which owned vast lands with forests, fields and meadows. Behind the monastery wall were hidden: a decorative orchard, a utilitarian vegetable garden with small beds rectangular shape and, hidden from prying eyes, a heavenly courtyard. Based on modern knowledge and the experience of previous cultures, the monks cultivated all kinds of plants, first of all, they grew medicinal plants and cultivated vegetable gardens.

Paradise Court

Paradise Court was a must integral part monastery complex.

There was a real sense of nature here, nurtured by the tradition of the biblical paradise. When the monks worked in the garden, it was believed that they were purifying their souls with an earthly vision of the lost Garden of Eden. Paradise Court - inner space quadrangular in shape, closed by an ambita with a covered arcade. This type of garden has its counterparts in the Roman peristyle. There was a source in the center clean water most often, it was a tank for clean water or a well; sometimes a pool was set up there to raise fish used for preparing Lenten Christian food. The territory of the paradise courtyard was divided by paths to the source into four sections correct form. Very rarely, low trees or bushes were planted here; as a rule, flowers to decorate the monastery church and medicinal herbs were grown in the neatly cultivated beds of the paradise courtyard. Since ancient times, each flower has had its own symbolic meaning. For example, it symbolized the purity of the Virgin Mary, the red rose symbolized the shed blood of Christ, White Rose-queen of heaven -Mary, etc. Other wild and garden flowers also grew in the flower beds. We can admire the natural beauty of plants, especially flowers, captured by medieval masters, by looking at wall paintings, icons, manuscripts and embroideries preserved in Gothic monasteries.

An ancient indoor garden or part of it, depending on the type of planting and purpose, was called: herbarium - a garden specialized in growing medicinal herbs or flowers; gardinum - kitchen garden with vegetable beds and roots, if possible combined with an orchard; viridarium (no longer just a monastery) - a garden for recreation and entertainment (recreatione et solatio). The decorative orchard had only one function: here one could admire the blooming fruit trees and walked in their shade, often along the banks of a river, pool or pond.

The first herbarium with the character of a botanical garden appeared in 1333 in Venice, and soon Prague had a similar botanical garden.

Secular gardens of the Middle Ages

Not only palace complexes had their own garden plots, but also other city secular buildings, which had own plot lands, more extensive gardens were laid out during hailstorms.

Some information about what they looked like secular gardens in the houses of the nobility and medieval towns come from poetry, literature, minstrelsy and troubadour songs. Illuminated miniatures and manuscripts contain descriptions of the composition, atmosphere and details of late Gothic gardens. These gardens have always had a fence, stone walls often supplemented with towers with pavilions, sometimes with a moat with water. Stone, plank or brick ones were laid between the rectangular beds. Among the beds with vegetables and roots, as a rule, they did not forget to have beds with plants for: repelling insects, preparing a “love potion,” and also making poisons.

Images of landscape parks are already found in medieval paintings.

Covered with turf, the low wall was a kind of medieval one. In the middle of the garden there was usually a stone well or an iron fountain with drinking water, sometimes with a swimming pool, as well as a tank for watering plants and a stone table for food.

Even then, evergreen trees and bushes were trimmed, giving them bizarre shapes and placed in stone vases.

Occasionally in the garden there were labyrinths, the ornament of which was created from low bushes, the design of which led to the center in complex ways. was carried out in the likeness of patterns on the stone floors of Gothic cathedrals.

City gardens were invariably an integral part of the knights' way of life, accompanied by gallant courtship, music and dance. In some gardens that belonged to wealthy owners, colorful birds flew freely, and noble peacocks often walked around. In the copper garden enclosures lived not only warblers, blackbirds and starlings, but also pheasants and wood grouse.

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The fundamental principle and model of all gardens, according to Christian ideas, is paradise, a garden planted by God, sinless, holy, abundant with everything that a person needs, with all types of trees, plants, and inhabited by animals living peacefully with each other. This original paradise is surrounded by a fence beyond which God banished Adam and Eve after their fall. Therefore, the main “significant” feature of the Garden of Eden is its enclosure; the garden is most often referred to as “hortus conclusus” (“fenced garden”). The next indispensable and most characteristic feature of paradise in the ideas of all times was the presence in it of everything that can bring joy not only to the eye, but also to hearing, smell, taste, touch - all human senses. Flowers fill paradise with color and fragrance. Fruits not only serve as a decoration equal to flowers, but also delight the palate. Birds not only fill the garden with singing, but also decorate it with their colorful appearance, etc.

The Middle Ages saw art as a second “revelation” that revealed wisdom, harmony, and rhythm in the world. This concept of the beauty of the world order is expressed in a number of written works of the Middle Ages - in Erigena, in the “Sex Days” of Basil the Great and John Exarch of Bulgaria and many others. etc.

Everything in the world had, to one degree or another, a multi-valued symbolic or allegorical meaning, but the garden is a microcosm, just as many books were a microcosm. Therefore, in the Middle Ages, a garden was often likened to a book, and books (especially collections) were often called “gardens”: “Vertograds”, “Limonis”, or “Limonaria”, “Prisoned Gardens”, etc. The garden should be read like a book, extracting from it benefit and instruction. The books were also called "Bees" - a name again associated with the garden, for the bee collects its honey in the garden.

As a rule, monastery courtyards, enclosed in a rectangle of monastic buildings, were adjacent to the south side of the church. The monastery courtyard, usually square, was divided by narrow paths crosswise (which had a symbolic meaning) into four square parts. In the center, at the intersection of the paths, a well, a fountain, and a small reservoir were built for aquatic plants and watering the garden, washing or drinking water. The fountain was also a symbol - a symbol of purity of faith, inexhaustible grace, etc. A small pond was often built where fish were bred for fasting days. This small garden in the courtyard of the monastery there was usually small trees- fruit or decorative and flowers.

However, commercial orchards, apothecary gardens and kitchen gardens were usually established outside the monastery walls. A small orchard inside the monastery courtyard was a symbol of paradise. It often included a monastery cemetery. The pharmaceutical garden was located near the monastery hospital or almshouse. The apothecary's garden also grew plants that could serve as dyes for painting initials and miniatures of manuscripts. AND healing properties herbs were determined mainly by the symbolic meaning of a particular plant.

Evidence of how much attention was paid to gardens and flowers in the Middle Ages is the rescript of 1812, by which Charlemagne ordered the flowers to be planted in his gardens. The rescript contained a list of about sixty names of flowers and ornamental plants. This list was copied and then distributed to monasteries throughout Europe. Gardens were cultivated even by mendicant orders. The Franciscans, for example, until 1237, according to their charter, did not have the right to own land, with the exception of a plot at the monastery, which could not be used except for a garden. Other monastic orders They were specially engaged in gardening and horticulture and were famous for it. Every detail in the monastery gardens had a symbolic meaning to remind the monks of the foundations of divine economy and Christian virtues.

Gardens in castles had a special character. They were usually under the special supervision of the mistress of the castle and served as a small oasis of calm among the noisy and dense crowd of inhabitants of the castle that filled its courtyards. Both medicinal and poisonous herbs, herbs for decoration and those with symbolic meaning were grown here. Particular attention was paid to fragrant herbs. Their aroma corresponded to the idea of ​​paradise, delighting all human senses, but another reason for their cultivation was that castles and cities, due to low sanitary conditions, were full of bad odors. In medieval monastery gardens they planted decorative flowers and bushes, especially roses taken by the crusaders from the Middle East. Sometimes trees grew here - lindens, oaks. Near the defensive fortifications of the castle, “meadows of flowers” ​​were set up for tournaments and social fun. “Rose Garden” and “Meadow of Flowers” ​​are one of the motifs of medieval painting of the 15th-16th centuries; The Madonna and Child were most often depicted against the backdrop of a garden.