Part IV
Daisy
Delicate daisies were the favorite flowers of the Virgin Mary and appeared from the reflections of stars in drops of dew. In the northern sagas daisy was dedicated to the goddess of spring and love and was considered the “bride of the sun.” Well, in the times of troubadours, knights and beautiful ladies a game of “frank daisy” appeared - fortune telling “loves - does not love.”
In general, luxury in the Middle Ages ornamental gardens there wasn't. Troubled times forced the construction of high walls and towers and the reduction of interior spaces. Fortresses were built on inaccessible peaks or surrounded by wide ditches, so only tiny gardens could be built in castles, which were loved by everyone and were interpreted as “oases of calm.” Meadows were arranged around the castles for tournaments and social entertainment.
At first, castle gardens were more utilitarian - they provided for the needs of table and treatment. Apothecary gardens were supplemented fruit trees and shrubs, as well as vegetable plots. “Sweet-smelling” plants were grown: roses, lilies, primroses, violets, cornflowers, which were used in rituals, decorations and foods. Perfumes and spices were made from flowers. Violets were added to salads. Primrose, violet, rose petals and hawthorn mixed with honey and sugar made up a favorite delicacy. Girls and women wore flowers in their hair and wreaths on their heads. In France, wreaths made from flowers were called “chapeyron-de-fleurs”, and those made from roses were called “chapel”. People who knitted wreaths began to be called “chapeliers,” just as hat makers are called today. Obviously, the French word “chapo” - hat - came from these wreaths.
First mention of flower garden roses and violets dates back to approximately 1000. From now on orchard already often contained decorative areas. The favorite tree was linden, which was often planted next to the well.
At the beginning of the second millennium, they formed centralized states In Europe, cities grew, crusades spread, a worldly spirit began to permeate the culture, and the level of education of the population increased. An interest in man and earthly life awakened. Now it was already possible to show beauty human body and express love for earthly things. Monasteries are losing their role as cultural centers to cities.
An important part of mature culture Middle Ages there was a knightly culture. The concept of “knight” has become synonymous with nobility and nobility. A “code of knightly honor” and “rules of courtliness” emerged. The reflection of knightly culture was the poetry of troubadours, trouvères and minnesingers, “chivalrous novels”, as well as the “pleasure garden” of knightly society. These gardens served as prayerful or philosophical retreats. Mandatory activities included reading, playing music, singing and dancing.
The structure of such a garden was described by the Dominican monk Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), a famous naturalist Middle Ages. He wrote that for a “pleasure garden” “there is always a place in any territory that is unsuitable for growing crops. Pleasure Gardens serve primarily to satisfy the two senses of sight and smell, and do not require great care, since nothing pleases the eye more than a wonderful layer of grass of medium height.” These gardens were built on leveled areas, cleared of old roots (to destroy old seeds in the ground, Albert the Great suggested pouring boiling water over the entire area). The garden included a rectangle of flowerbeds for aromatic plants. The center of the garden was a wonderful clearing where one could sit, relax and restore peace of mind. Between the clearing and the flower beds, beautifully flowering plants grew on a hill.
He formulated and practical recommendations: “Trees and vineyards should be planted on the sunny side of the clearing; their foliage will protect the clearing and provide refreshing shade.” They are not suitable for this because they do not provide much shade and require fertilizer, which can damage the clearing. The “Garden of Pleasures” should be open to the north and east winds, as these winds bring health and purity. But it is closed to winds of opposite directions (south and west) because the stormy nature of these winds and impurity have a weakening effect. The north wind can interfere with the ripening of fruits, but is very beneficial for human health. The "Garden of Pleasure" provides pleasure - not fruit." At the same time, an anti-feudal and anti-church culture, in opposition to the knightly culture, was spreading in the cities. Works of urban satirical epic appeared. This is the famous “Romance of the Rose” in two parts, the first of which was written by Guillaume de Lorris in 1220-1230. The author describes the “garden - earthly paradise”:
“... I saw that garden in a dream;
I saw blooming May in a dream,
When everyone is so happy about spring,
When everyone and everything is delighted:
And all the little birds, wearing fluff,
With the foliage of a new oak grove,
And all the gardens, bushes and herbs."
He is led into this garden by Lady Idleness herself, wearing a delightful wreath and a garland of roses. Along the path among the fresh aromatic herbs he goes out into a clearing where Mr. Myrtle (the owner of the garden) is frolicking with friends; and seven maidens, adorned with wreaths and garlands of roses, dance with them. Lorris sees many trees from warm and distant countries(originally from Alexandria: date palm, figs, almonds, pomegranates, cypresses, pine trees, olives and laurels. Some trees are connected by branches together and form arches. The air is intoxicating with the spicy aroma of ginger, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. The picture is enlivened by the presence of animals - roe deer, deer, rabbits, squirrels and birds, and water jets gushing from a clean transparent source sprinkle flowers and grass with wet dust sparkling in the sun. However, on the garden wall the author sees a gallery of paintings and sculptural portraits: Hatred, Betrayal, Greed, Avarice, Envy, Sadness and Old Age.
Miniature from "The Romance of the Rose" pleasure garden
This talented work has been translated into many languages and republished several times. The original gardens of the castles have not survived, but the bright miniatures illustrating “The Romance of the Rose” brought to us the atmosphere medieval knightly “garden of pleasures”, smoothing out the satirical and edifying sharpness of literature.
Gardens mature Middle Ages purchased decorativeness(About the appearance of the first ornamental gardens you can read in the article Gardens of Ancient Egypt and Crete). The development of crafts affected the art of decorating fountains, benches, gazebos, and mosaic paving. The entrances to the garden were decorated with ornamental wooden gates with shingle roofs. Parts of the garden were also separated by light fences with gates. Pergolas and trellises dating back to ancient Rome were common.
Important!
Another achievement of the Middle Ages was the emergence of botanical gardens who were of Islamic origin.
The Arabs translated and preserved the scientific heritage of antiquity, expanded their knowledge in the field of botany and horticulture, and collected descriptions of many plants. Harun al-Rashid and his successors brought plants and their seeds from Asia and Africa. The great botanist Ibn al-Baytar of Malaga classified approximately 14,000 plants. Participants in the Crusades brought information about different countries and plants, developing interest in natural sciences.
Important!
Arabic method of sowing seeds different plants the lawn was also adopted by Europeans, and a similar lawn got the name Moorish.
Lawns are not only Moorish, but also decorative, parterre, ordinary, meadow. This is written about in the article Classification of Lawns on our website.
Botanical Garden
In 1250 there was already a botanical garden, part of a medical school established by Arab doctors in Spain. Education ceased to be a monopoly of monasteries, and gardening became the business of merchants and scholars interested in botany. The creation of universities also encouraged the gathering botanical collections. IN early XIV century botanical gardens appeared in Salerno, Padua, Pisa, Bologna, Venice, Prague. This passion for collecting rare and foreign plants has survived to this day.
Important!
In the XII-XIII centuries they began to appear public outdoor gardens of a representative nature for the recreation of citizens.
At first they were organized in the cities of Italy and France. They occupied relatively large areas and were used for city fairs. The space was formed by meadow-type lawns and shady alleys with decorative garden elements. Lawns are classified into decorative, meadow, ground floor. You can read about this in the article Classification of Lawns. In later Middle Ages, when the cities achieved economic prosperity and relative peace, they were surrounded by peripheral green belts with meadows and groves. These meadows were named in Latin: "pratum commune", from where the names "Prado" in Madrid and "Pratter" in Vienna originate.
One day, Charlemagne's son Prince Pepin asked his teacher: “What is rain?” And the learned Anglo-Saxon Alcuin is one of the revered “encyclopedists” Middle Ages, answered: “The conception of the earth, ending in the birth of fruits.” Perhaps this is where we can end the story about the Middle Ages - the “bad weather” in which the socio-cultural community of Europe was conceived and born. End.
The story of my love for gardens and parks began in childhood. My sister really loved collecting wildflowers, and I liked digging in the ground with my grandmother, creating cute flower beds, decorating paths, planting bushes and trees. And in a couple of years, sit on a bench in this garden and admire the creation of your own hands.
When I was fifteen, I went with my mother on an excursion to Hampton Court. Hampton Court is a former country residence of English kings, located on the banks of the Thames in the London suburb of Richmond upon Thames.
The palace was founded in 1514 by the all-powerful Cardinal Wolsey, who donated it to Henry VIII. If Volsi was inspired by the layout of Italian palazzos of the Renaissance, the king introduced elements of gloomy medieval architecture into the architecture, and also built a large tennis hall (it is called the oldest tennis court in the world).
Over the next century and a half, Hampton Court remained the main country residence of all English monarchs. King William III considered the palace not to meet modern tastes and invited Christopher Wren to renovate it in the then fashionable Baroque style. A regular French park in front of the palace was laid out for William III modeled on the Dutch Het Loo; its curious feature is a labyrinth covering an area of 60 acres.
The day I saw the famous labyrinth, I realized that this was love for life. Clear lines of plantings stretched into the distance and merged into one green canvas, which made it scary and curious at the same time. I wanted to walk along every corridor, look around every corner, explore all the dead ends... but, alas, time did not allow. Then I got excited about the idea of creating my own labyrinth.
But before I got anything done, I managed to visit several more famous gardens with labyrinths: the St. Gallen Monastery Garden in Switzerland and the Dutch Het Loo.
At all times, gardens at monasteries were distinguished by their simplicity and privacy. It is these qualities that must be taken into account when creating a garden in a monastic style, which is completely uncharacteristic of luxury, solemnity, and theatricality. A small number of arches and pergolas symmetrically placed in different corners will emphasize the overall composition winter garden, the utilitarian character of which will be given by a small area with planted in tubs fruit trees, containers with flowers, medicinal herbs.
The layout was simple, geometric, sometimes with a pool and fountain in the center. Often two crosswise intersecting paths divided the garden into four parts; in the center of this intersection, in memory of the martyrdom of Christ, a cross was erected or a rose bush was planted. Some monastery gardens were decorated with trellis arbors and low walls to separate one area from another.
The labyrinth garden is a technique that was formed precisely in monastery gardens and took a strong place in subsequent park construction.
In Russia there was such a labyrinth Summer Garden(not preserved), the regular part of Pavlovsky Park (restored) and Sokolniki Park, where its roads looked like intertwined ellipses inscribed in the spruce massif (lost).
The St. Gallen monastery garden forever sank into my soul with a feeling of calm and immense silence; after an hour’s walk through it, my head cleared and my thoughts flowed smoothly and slowly, without fuss.
But the vastness and geometric clarity of the lines, with the bizarre transitions from one part of the garden to another in Het Loo, made the heart beat faster and I wanted to catch a glimpse of everything.
The park of the royal palace Het Loo is one of the most famous and beautiful in the Netherlands. The palace itself was built more than 300 years ago near the town of Apeldoorn, in the very center of the Netherlands. In 1984, the former royal residence was restored and opened to the general public. The palace gives an idea of how the royal family lived there for three centuries, in which there is also a Russian trace (the daughter of Paul I - Anna, the wife of Willem II). And the garden represents 17th century landscape architecture. With its fountains and parterres, without Peterhof pomp, but so reminiscent of it, framed by evergreen boxwood and thuja. A very elegant, human-sized garden, which distinguishes it from other European gardens.
My garden is clearly smaller in size than the parks of the Middle Ages, but still does not cease to train the imagination.
Not everything worked out right away, of course, but the path to the goal is never easy. You have to repeat what you’ve done more than once, throw everything away and start over... it looks like a labyrinth, doesn’t it?
The labyrinth appeared as a garden decoration at the end of the 14th century. It was believed that “walking” improved mental health. The activity was considered both deeply Christian and respectable: labyrinths in Europe became a mandatory element of a country estate park.
The Russian estates of Kuskovo, Ostankino, Arkhangelskoye, Peterhof and others had a graphically clear layout of alleys, the walls of which were made up of trimmed bushes. Having initially performed a purely decorative function, labyrinths in gardens in the form of hedges gradually became more and more complex in compositional terms, and then the fashion for labyrinths, like a fickle lady, passed away again.
But today labyrinths are gaining popularity again. The real labyrinth boom began in the 80s of the last century. Mirrors and wooden partitions, brick, plastic panels, walls of falling water made the labyrinth the subject of a stylish designer design.
It is interesting that people resort to the symbol of the labyrinth during times of stress. Thus, the labyrinth in Knoxville (USA) became a place of spontaneous gathering of people after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001: after hearing the terrible news, people wandered along the spiral paths, trying to drown out their fears and cope with emotions. Similar crowds of people around labyrinths were then observed throughout the country.
Today, labyrinths, becoming more and more complex, are created on the basis mathematical models and theories. Set up in parks and on tourist routes, they offer exciting intellectual entertainment, a test of intelligence and luck. Only one of the most respected garden designers working in this direction, Adrian Fischer, has built several hundred labyrinths around the world.
For example, at the 2008 Olympics in China, as part of the cultural program of this event, Fischer built a labyrinth with a total length of 8 kilometers, breaking Guinness Book records. Fischer and his colleagues enriched the park labyrinth with new planning solutions, non-traditional materials, other original parts.
So, through trial and error, my own labyrinth garden was created. If you know where to start and where to get it, then it is quite possible and not so difficult.
First, you should choose the size and shape of the future labyrinth, depending on the capabilities of your garden: from 2-3 to 20 meters in diameter. In private estates and on garden plots There is always a desire to do something unconventional, interesting, useful for the development of children and the entertainment of adults. For this, it is good to use a green hedge, fortunately, in the modern market planting material you can find plants for every taste, for any height of the border or wall of our labyrinth.
For a small, children's labyrinth, you can use row plantings of annuals such as curly parsley or marigolds, pebbles, and flower pots. For something more serious and bigger - hedge from bushes.
It is important that the hedge that makes up the walls of the labyrinth must be formable, that is, the plants must tolerate cutting and pruning in order to maintain a certain shape. Trimming allows you to vary the required size of the hedge. Suitable for such a hedge are: low-growing spirea, holly mahonia, St. John's wort, boxwood, alpine currant, and shrubby cinquefoil.
If you want to create a large labyrinth for adults, you can choose trees up to 3 meters high: steppe cherry, Cossack juniper, rose hips, common lilac, cotoneaster, Tatarian maple, common spruce, forest and Tatar honeysuckle, western thuja, Thunberg barberry, alpine currant, white dogwood, common hornbeam, mock orange (jasmine), mahonia, boxwood, Van Gutta spirea, hawthorn, yew, low almond (steppe), middle forsythia, serviceberry.
For the alleys of a regular garden with a graphically clear form, trees over 3 meters high are suitable: beech, bird cherry, maple, heart-shaped and small-leaved linden, oriental thuja, some types of cherry, yew, common hornbeam, occidental thuja, tamarix, spruce.
You can choose shrubs in such a way that the flowering period of some will replace others. And your labyrinth will always look like an elegant and tidy flowerbed on the lawn. You can combine several ways to create a labyrinth - using plants - both coniferous and deciduous; shrubs and vines; arches, pergolas, trellises; add mirrors.
The shape of the labyrinth can be not only traditionally round, but also square, and triangular, and in the form of a teapot, and in the form of a capital letter of the name of the garden owners. You can make a very simple labyrinth - an entrance, two turns and an exit, or you can make a simple one, but with one entrance. You can make it end-to-end, without a clearly marked center, or with a center in the form of a fountain, gazebo, patio, belvedere, pond, bathhouse.
The Internet, your imagination, family brainstorming - and endless green and flowering corridors will not only please the eye, but also soothe the heart and entertain guests. For example, in my labyrinth I organize competitions for children - who can go all the “checkpoints” the fastest. And, of course, it’s worth visiting a medieval or modern labyrinth at least once. Even if you don’t decide to create even a small labyrinth in your dacha, you will at least feel the calm and grandeur, danger and harmony of these bizarre and mathematically complex drawings.
Especially for the site Olga Shain
1. Gardens of the Arabs in Spain.
At the end of the 4th century. The brilliant era of antiquity with its sciences, art, and architecture ended its existence, giving way to a new era - feudalism. The period of time spanning a thousand years between the fall of Rome (late 4th century) and the Renaissance in Italy (14th century) is called the Middle Ages, or the Middle Ages. This was the time of the formation of European states, permanent internecine wars and uprisings, the time of the establishment of Christianity. “But at the same time, in these torments, a new human society was born. In wars and uprisings, famine and epidemics, slavery was destroyed and replaced by the feudal system.”
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). The change in architectural styles does not significantly affect park construction, since during this period the art of gardening, which is the most vulnerable of all types of art and more than others requires a peaceful environment for its existence, suspends its development. It exists in the form of small gardens at monasteries and castles, that is, in areas relatively protected from destruction.
Monastery gardens. Herbaceous medicinal and ornamental plants were grown in them. The layout was simple, geometric, with a pool and fountain in the center. Often two crosswise intersecting paths divided the garden into four parts; in the center of this intersection, in memory of the martyrdom of Christ, a cross was erected or a rose bush was planted.
Castle gardens arranged inside their territory. They were small and introverted. Flowers were grown here, there was a source - a well, sometimes a miniature pool and fountain, and almost always a bench in the form of a ledge covered with turf - a technique that became widespread in parks.
Garden labyrinth- a technique that was formed in the monastery gardens and took a strong place in subsequent park construction. Initially, the labyrinth was a pattern, the design of which fit into a circle or hexagon and led in complex ways to the center. In the early Middle Ages, this drawing was laid out on the floor of the temple, and later transferred to the garden, where the paths were separated by the walls of a trimmed hedge. Subsequently, labyrinth gardens received widespread in regular and even landscape parks. In Russia, such a labyrinth was in the Summer Garden (not preserved), a regular part of Pavlovsk Park (restored) and Sokolniki Park, where its roads looked like intertwined ellipses inscribed in the spruce massif (lost).
The late Middle Ages are characterized by the opening of the first universities (Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Prague). Horticulture and botany have reached high level development, the first botanical gardens appeared (Aachen, Venice, etc.).
Arab gardens in Spain
In the 8th century Arabs (Moors) settled on the Iberian Peninsula and stayed here for almost seven centuries. Toledo became a major center of education, and Cordoba the most civilized city in Europe.
Borrowing the experience of Egypt and Rome in constructing irrigation structures, the Arabs were able to use the melting snow on the mountain peaks and created a powerful hydraulic system, turning waterless Spain into a flourishing land. A new type of garden was formed here - Spanish-Moorish. This is a small courtyard (200-1200 m2) of atrium-peristyle type (patio), surrounded by the walls of the house or fence, and is a continuation of the front and living quarters in the open air.
A complex of such miniature patio, included in the complex structure of the palace, are the gardens of Grenada, created in the 13th century. in the residences of the caliphs - Alhambra (650X200 m) and Generalife (area 80X 100 m).
In the Alhambra, the palace premises were grouped around the Court of Myrtle and the Court of Lions. The myrtle courtyard (47X 33 m) is surrounded by walls of buildings with an elegant arcade, richly decorated with ornaments. In the center there is a pool (7X45 m), elongated along the long axis and framed by rows of clipped myrtle. The main effect is the reflection of the arcade of the tower in the water of the pool. The Court of the Lions (28 X 19 m) is also surrounded by walls and an arcade, crossed by two mutually perpendicular channels, in the center of which there is a fountain of two alabaster vases supported by 12 black marble lions.
There is also the Queen's Courtyard, decorated with a fountain, 4 cypress trees in the corners, and most importantly - a complex covering ornament, into the design of which both the pool and the cypress planting sites are woven.
The Generalif Ensemble is the summer residence of the caliphs, located 100 m above the Alhambra. It is a complex of isolated patio gardens on terraces. The most famous is the courtyard with the canal. It is elongated and surrounded by an arcade; in the center there is a narrow 40-meter canal, decorated with two rows of fountains. Their thin streams form an arched alley. Freely planted in the garden small trees and shrubs.
In general, the traditions of the Spanish-Moorish garden are characterized by the following features: simplicity of planning and individuality of the solution. The layout is regular, determined by the geometric plan of the patio. The garden has a compositional center, most often a swimming pool. The entrance to the garden is often placed not in the center, but on the side, thereby breaking symmetry and enriching the overall picture of the garden.
The connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces of the garden appearance is achieved by arranging viewpoints decorated with arcades. This method of interconnection was subsequently widely developed in landscape art.
Water is the main motif of the garden. It is present in every patio in the form of canals, pools, and springs gushing out of the ground. The water either flows down channels made in the railings of the stairs, then permeates the plane of the garden in a narrow strip, then spreads out like a vast mirror (Myrtle Courtyard), then forms fountain streams. In all its diversity there is a desire to show the value of every drop.
Vegetation is used in such a way as to demonstrate the individual merits of each specimen. Cypress trees, orange and tangerine trees, jasmine, almonds, oleander, and roses were planted freely. Haircuts were rarely used as an architectural element.
The hot climate did not allow the use of a lawn, so most of the territory was decorated with decorative paving.
IN color scheme Characterized by a combination of an overall restrained color scheme of walls, greenery of trees and shrubs with bright splashes of beautifully flowering plants or colored coverings. Decorative paving is one of the important elements Spanish-Moorish garden. Sometimes retaining walls and garden benches were lined with colored majolica. Primary colors are blue, yellow, green.
Thus, the Spanish-Moorish style was formed with a set of its own techniques that corresponded to the requirements of time, nature, and national traditions.
The Middle Ages saw in art the second Revelation, revealing rhythm and harmony in the wisdom with which the world is structured. Everything in the world had, to one degree or another, a multi-valued symbolic or allegorical meaning. If the world is the second Revelation, then the garden is a microcosm, just as many books were microcosms. Therefore, in the Middle Ages, a garden was often likened to a book, and books (especially collections) were often called “gardens”: “Vertograds”, “Limonis” or “Lemon Gardens”, “Confined Gardens” (hortus conclusus), etc. The garden should be read like a book, drawing benefit and instruction from it.
The garden in the West was part of a house, a monastery. It was born from the ancient atrium - a “roofless room”, a courtyard for living in it.
At first, the Orthodox church garden did not differ in any special delights. The ascetic desert (or, in northern latitudes, thicket) invariably dominated the sensual “paradise of sweetness,” being itself a formless and non-empirical paradise.
The ancient philosophical garden ideally made a person godlike, even godlike, thereby fulfilling the promise of Epicurus (“you will live like gods among people”). Now the likeness to God, prophetically proclaimed by Christ and the apostles, became the goal of church liturgy, architecturally concentrated in the temple, where natural symbols, even if extremely important for religious inspiration, still played a secondary role. The unconditional interaction of nature and architecture in ancient times was replaced in the Middle Ages by the unlimited dominance of architecture. And above all, church architecture. Even biblical landscapes began to attract pilgrims only after temples were built in them. Therefore, every heavenly or, more precisely, potentially heavenly locus necessarily fit not only into the fence, but also into solid walls, or at least adjacent to them on the side. Let the gardens of hermits arise in the bosom wildlife Whether as cultivated oases or, in the northern latitudes, as gardens-in-the-forest, the classic medieval garden invariably developed as an organic part of the monastic complex. Pointing to internal virtues, he himself, in a literal and figurative, symbolic sense, was inside the church.
In Western European medieval monasteries, the monastery courtyard became the monastery's premises for pious reflection and prayer. As a rule, monastery courtyards, enclosed in a rectangle of monastic buildings, adjoined south side churches. The monastery courtyard, usually square, was divided by narrow paths crosswise into four square parts (reminiscent of the four rivers of heaven and the Cross of Christ.). In the center, at the intersection of the paths, a well, a fountain, and a small pond were built for water plants and watering the garden, washing or drinking water. Often arranged and small pond, where fish were bred for fasting days. This small garden in the courtyard of the monastery there were usually low trees - fruit or ornamental trees and flowers. However, orchards, apothecary gardens and kitchen gardens were usually established outside the monastery walls. The orchard often included a monastery cemetery. The pharmaceutical garden was located near the monastery hospital or almshouse.
Plants that could provide dyes for illuminating manuscripts were also grown in the apothecary's garden. How much attention was paid to gardens and flowers in the Middle Ages is evidenced by the rescript of 812, by which Charlemagne ordered the flowers that must be planted in his gardens. About 60 titles were included in this rescript various colors and ornamental plants. This list of Charlemagne was copied and then distributed to monasteries throughout Europe. Even mendicant orders cultivated gardens. 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 orders were specially engaged in gardening and horticulture and were famous for it.
The purely decorative monastery garden was a “vertograd”, dating back to the ancient “cavum aedium”. "Vertograd" is the only one of medieval gardens compositionally it was connected with the surrounding monastery buildings. Inscribed in the quadrangle of the monastery galleries, it was surrounded by paths (the paths crossed it crosswise - along the axes or along the diagonals). In the center there was a well, a fountain (symbols of “eternal life”), a tree or decorative bush. Sometimes "vertograd" was called "paradise", "heavenly courtyard". Carthusian monasteries and Cameduli monasteries were “separate”, and communication between monks was limited to a minimum. Hence the special structure of the monasteries of these orders. The buildings formed a regular quadrangle. In the middle there was a large “helicopter city” with a cemetery. On one side there was a church, the monastery itself (the main building), the prior's house and outbuildings. The three remaining sides of the large "vertograd" were occupied by "hermitages" - each with a special flower garden, which was looked after by a monk living in the "monastery". Along with decorative “vertograds”, there were utilitarian gardens, vegetable gardens and herbal gardens at the monasteries. They were located outside the monastery buildings, but were surrounded by a common wall. Their layout is as follows: they were divided into squares and rectangles. Over time, a Renaissance decorative park appears on this basis.
In medieval symbolism, hortus conclusus (Old Russian “enclosed garden”) has two meanings: 1. Mother of God (purity); 2. Paradise, symbolizing eternal spring, eternal happiness, abundance, contentment, the sinless state of humanity. This latter allows us to separate the image of paradise from the image of the Mother of God. Every detail in the monastery gardens had a symbolic meaning to remind the monks of the basics of divine economy, Christian virtues, etc. "An ornate ceramic vase with a fiery bulbous lily (L"bulbiperum) and "royal lilies" (irises) indicates the "body" of God's Son, the male child whom God created from "red clay." Another vessel, glass, transparent, with aquilegia (the personification of the Holy Spirit), with carnations (the personification of pure love), symbolizes the very purity of the Virgin Mary. The courtyards of the ancient English colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, most of which (colleges) were “learned monasteries” in origin. Paradise as a creation is opposed to nature, primordial form and chaos.
Apothecary gardens of the Middle Ages and their further development (question No. 17).
The term "apothecary garden" is narrow, it suggests a garden or small vegetable garden for growing medicinal plants, for a specific pharmacy. The first mention of apothecary gardens in Europe dates back to the Middle Ages. The monasteries at that time enjoyed universal fame and respect, and were, perhaps, the only place, where medical care was provided to both monks and pilgrims, so it was simply impossible to do without temple medicinal gardens. The cultivation of medicinal plants became an important concern of medieval gardeners. The apothecary garden was usually located in the courtyards, next to the doctor’s house, the monastery hospital or almshouse.
In addition to the most common plants that have emetics, laxatives, bactericidal, etc. properties, a considerable part of the cultivated plants could be occupied by plants with psychotropic, intoxicating and narcotic effects (which were then accepted as manifestations of supernatural forces), since the mystical component of the healing process, that is, special rituals, was still of very great, if not dominant, importance.
The creation of medicinal gardens was also encouraged by Charlemagne (742-814). Evidence of how much attention was paid to gardens in the Middle Ages is the rescript of 812, by which Charlemagne ordered those plants that should be planted in his gardens. The rescript contained a list of about sixty names of medicinal and ornamental plants. This list was copied and then distributed to monasteries throughout Europe.
Among the monastery gardens, the St. Gallen (or St. Gallen) Garden in Switzerland was especially famous, where medicinal plants and vegetables were grown. The Monastery of St. Gall (St. Galen) was founded approximately in 613. The monastery library of medieval manuscripts has been preserved here, which numbers 160 thousand items and is considered one of the most complete in Europe. One of the most interesting exhibits is the “Plan of Saint Gall”, compiled in the beginning. 9th century and representing an idealized picture of a medieval monastery (this is the only architectural plan, preserved from the early Middle Ages). Judging by this plan, there were: a monastery courtyard - a cloister, a vegetable garden, a flower garden for church services, a garden of medicinal plants and an orchard, which was a symbol of paradise, and also included a monastery cemetery.
The library also preserved documents that showed that the monks not only bred medicinal plants, but they also collected them throughout Europe and even exchanged plants with the countries of the Islamic world, and also brought them from Crusades. The monastery book depositories contained works of ancient authors and the works of great scientists of the East, translated by the monks into Latin, which contained invaluable information about the types and properties of plants. This is how the first collection gardens appeared. They had small sizes, and the plant collections in them were presented, placed in beds, medicinal, poisonous, spicy plants, used in medieval medicine, and some types of decorative ones. It was these gardens that were the forerunners of the display of useful plants in modern botanical gardens. Small sizes, usually not exceeding several hundred square meters, made the planning structure of the botanical garden of that time relatively simple. So, for example, the apothecary garden in St. Galen, mentioned earlier, as can be judged from the surviving plan, consisted of 16 departments with various useful, ornamental and other plants. The plant displays in this garden were small rectangular areas with regular ridges.
Plan of the monastery of St. Gall.
1. The doctor's house. 2. Garden of medicinal plants. 3. Monastery courtyard - cloister. 4. Orchard and cemetery. 5. Vegetable garden.
Later herb gardens, established at university botanical gardens for educational purposes, were also designed as beds. Although these beds contained many new plants and were arranged according to new scientific principles, the beds themselves remained the same geometric shape and simple layout. For example, in the garden laid out by the Society of London Apothecaries in the 17th century, such beds exist to this day.
Since the 14th century. Monastery apothecary gardens are gradually turning into medical gardens, in the activities of which fundamentally new features can already be noted. Unlike medieval monastery gardens, medical gardens now have not only a narrow practical significance. They laid the foundation for work on the primary introduction of plants, collected local and foreign plants, described them and brought them into a certain system.
The formation of botanical gardens as scientific institutions dates back to the Renaissance. This was greatly facilitated by the widespread dissemination of scientific knowledge and, in particular, natural science at that time. The first scientific botanical gardens appeared in Italy at the very beginning of the 14th century. (garden in Salerno -1309), where, in comparison with other European countries, by that time the most favorable socio-historical preconditions had developed for the formation of new socio-economic relations, for the creation and further flourishing of a new humanistic culture and, in particular, the brilliant flourishing science and art. True, until the first half of the XVIII V. plant displays in most medical botanical gardens remained few in number, differing little from medieval monastery gardens. They were located on a plot of garden in the form separate groups medicinal and some other plants used mainly in medicine.
Starting from the 16th century, with the development of university life, the number of botanical gardens in Italy increased significantly: gardens appeared one after another in Padua (1545), Pisa (1547), Bologna (1567), etc. Somewhat later, in the 17th century, botanical gardens were created in other European countries: at Paris (1635) and Uppsala (Sweden) universities (1655), in Berlin (1646), Edinburgh (England) - the Royal botanical garden (1670), etc.
The rapid accumulation of plant material in botanical gardens required its scientific generalization and systematization. Linnaeus, the founder of plant taxonomy, came out with his “Plant System” in 1753 and developed the first harmonious artificial system plant classifications. Linnaeus divided plants into 24 classes, basing each of them on arbitrary characteristics, and thereby created new method systematization flora. Linnaeus's plant system gave rise to numerous studies and aroused great interest in the description of plants. A few years after the publication of Linnaeus’ system, the number of studied and described plants reached 100 thousand. Since then, Linnaeus’ taxonomist and botanist have become almost identical concepts. The botanical garden of that time was like a living herbarium for taxonomy. Aesthetics took a back seat here. Botanical gardens, as a kind of botanical laboratories at universities, demonstrating various plant systems, became widespread in the 17th-18th centuries. Gradually, in the process historical development botanical gardens, they have new feature- educational and pedagogical.
The history of botanical gardens in Russia is closely connected with the origin and development of Russian botanical science. Already by early XVII V. in our country there was a lot of information regarding the practical use of various plants both in agriculture and in medicine. Methods of using medicinal plants and descriptions of their medicinal properties were usually described in various “herbal books”, which were especially widespread in the second half of the 17th century. During the first half of the 18th century. In connection with the development of medicine and the increasing need for the production of medicines, the number of pharmaceutical gardens in Russia is rapidly increasing. Along with the first botanical garden in our country opened in 1706 at Moscow University, other gardens were organized: in Lubny in 1709, in St. Petersburg (now the garden of the Botanical Institute named after V.L. Komarov) in 1714. In the decree Peter I on the establishment of the St. Petersburg apothecary garden says that the latter was created “for the multiplication of apothecary herbs and the collection of special herbs, which are the most necessary natural resources in medicine, and also for teaching doctors and pharmacists in botany.” Among the collections of plants in this apothecary garden we find: chamomile, sage, mint, mustard, thyme, juniper, peonies, lavender, various bulbous plants, roses, etc. The foundation of the botanical garden of the Academy of Sciences on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg dates back to the same time, in the first third of the 18th century. Only very fragmentary information has been preserved about this garden, found in the archive materials.
From the second half of the 18th century. in Russia, along with state ones, numerous private botanical gardens began to be created. Collecting rare exotic plants became a fashion at that time, to which everyone paid tribute in the slightest degree. wealthy man. From this passion for collecting plants arose many botanical gardens of that time, in particular the famous gardens of P. Demidov in Moscow, A. Razumovsky in Gorenki near Moscow, etc. Some of them collected large, even in our time, collections of introduced plants . Thus, in the botanical garden of A. Razumovsky in Gorenki, up to 12 thousand species and varieties of Russian flora were presented. The botanical garden of the industrialist P. Demidov was established in 1756 and included in its collections up to 5 thousand species and varieties of plants.
At the end of the 18th century. The first botanical parks appeared in Russia - arboretums, which were laid out entirely in landscape style in accordance with the artistic tastes of the time. Such dendrological parks, which occupy an intermediate position between the botanical garden itself and an ordinary park, include the famous parks - Trostyanetsky in the Chernigov region, Sochi arboretum and Sofievsky near Uman in Ukraine, which have survived to this day.
In the first half of the 19th century. newly built botanical gardens, both in Russia and abroad, were created mainly as learning gardens at universities. Subsequently, gradually, as botanical knowledge increases, the range of activities of botanical gardens expands more and more. So in late XIX and the beginning of the 20th century. rapid development of cities began, a large scale of industrial construction, the emergence of complex urban planning problems in connection with this - the redevelopment and landscaping of cities, the creation of a protective forest park belt around large settlements etc. - all this has confronted botanical gardens around the world with the task of determining the most rational assortment of plants and developing effective methods greening cities and building parks.
Modern botanical gardens are actively involved in solving these problems; here ornamental plants are selected and studied, gardens begin to act as promoters of certain techniques and methods of landscaping. More and more exhibition areas are appearing in botanical gardens - gardens of individual crops, continuous flowering, exemplary corners of parks. At the same time, botanical gardens are increasingly promoting botanical knowledge and the study of living nature.
In the layout of botanical gardens, under the influence of the development of the free landscape direction, which has become widespread in the art of park planning, elements appear landscape style. Its artistic and aesthetic basis was the task of creating an idealized landscape. In connection with the new artistic tasks facing the art of park construction, the problems of studying decorative properties plants and their harmonious combination. In botanical gardens, scientific gardeners analyze artistic features and dendrological properties various breeds, methods of their design, possible groupings of plantings in parks and others the most important conditions creating a landscape.
So gradually, in the process of its historical development, botanical gardens from apothecary gardens The era of the Middle Ages has by now turned into a complex organism. It should be noted that changes in botanical gardens occurred primarily under the influence of the general development of botanical science and changing requirements for the scientific and botanical content of the work of a botanical garden. On the other hand, the changes were organically connected with general development gardening art.
A modern botanical garden is a complex organism with an area of up to many tens and even hundreds of hectares, with reconstruction on separate areas a garden of entire geographical landscapes and botanical-historical exhibitions (rock gardens, Japanese, Italian gardens, etc.), which cannot do without a landscape architect, achieving artistic unity of the entire variety of elements that make up the botanical garden.
