After the fall of the Roman Empire, the entire Europe was engulfed in centuries-long wars and general poverty, in which urban culture remained preserved only in traces. In such circumstances, all forms of classical art, including the art of garden design, almost completely evaporated and disappeared. The Church, with its monasteries, remained the only bearer of culture, philosophical and spiritual thought of early medieval Europe, and the only guardian of the ancient tradition in those times.
Although a withdrawn life offers various joys,
I believe nothing awakens more in a person
Than studying plants
Or gaining knowledge from nature’s wing.
Create a garden! It doesn’t matter what kind.
This advice is not taken from a textbook,
Nor is it read secondhand,
In a book or from some school,
But it is the result of personal experience and hard work,
In which I sacrificed the pleasure of rest and relaxation.
Walafrid Strabo, Hortulus, 840 A.D.
This poem was written by the German monk Walafrid Strabo in the 9th century. Strabo (808 – 849) was an abbot of Reich Monastery. Located on an island in Lake Constance in Switzerland, Hortulus, The Little Garden, describes Strabo’s personal garden in the monastery. The poem contains descriptions of many herbs that grew in his garden, as well as their medicinal uses.
“Among my plants, sage takes a place of honor; it has a beautiful scent and is full of virtue for many illnesses.”
(Walafrid Strabo, Hortulus)
It is precisely within the sanctuary of the monastery that gardens reappear, built on the foundations of the Roman tradition that has been modified and adapted to new circumstances. The basic characteristics of a typical medieval garden are its modest dimensions and its enclosed nature towards the surrounding landscape. Such a closed, fenced garden was initially located within the monastery, and later within a fortified castle or city, or next to them.
Alongside the Musée de l’Oeuvre de Notre Dame in Strasbourg, a museum dedicated to medieval art, a garden was built in 1931 based on the model of a medieval herb garden with nine square plant beds.
Monastery gardens
From the very beginnings of Christianity, believers of similar worldviews have joined together in monastic communities. Such communities, or monasteries, spread throughout Europe, were the guardians of literacy, culture, and knowledge throughout the medieval period. A fortified medieval monastery with its possessions was a closed, self-sufficient world in which the monks ensured everything they needed for their daily life, including cultivating the land and gardens from which they obtained food for themselves and their guests.
Among the many religious orders that emerged during the Middle Ages, a special place belongs to the Benedictine order. Their monasteries are usually located outside of cities, in the center of larger agricultural areas, and have a solid spatial organization established by St. Benedict himself in the 6th century when he founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino, near Naples. The spatial organization concept of the monastery established by the founder of the order in his fundamental principles… It has been held for centuries, and gardens, orchards, and vegetable gardens with all the accompanying economic buildings and spaces occupy an important place in the monastery.
For the Benedictines, working in the garden was a form of worshiping God, and at the same time, it prevented idleness, the enemy of the soul. In addition, the garden was supposed to serve as a spiritual refuge and a place where monks could dedicate themselves to contemplation and prayer in peace. That is why two basic types of gardens developed in medieval monasteries: a useful garden and a contemplation garden.
The Franciscan monastery of the Minor Friars in Dubrovnik has one of the most beautiful cloisters in our region. The cloister itself was built in a transitional Romanesque-Gothic style, with a columned porch enclosing a very simply arranged rectangular space. This space is divided by a path which also features a 15th-century fountain and two green areas planted with grass, Mediterranean trees, and ornamental shrubs. Today, there is a museum with inventory of old ap… alongside the cloister. The origins of the Male Braće monastery date back to the year 1317. Over time, the monks developed new agricultural and gardening methods, and members of the Cistercian order were particularly well-known for their skills in this area. Their gardening knowledge and skills were exchanged between monasteries and slowly spread throughout Europe, with advanced agriculture being promoted not only within monastic communities but also among the local population.
A contemplation garden is usually associated with the monastery cloister, which directly derives from the tradition of Roman peristyle gardens. It is believed that the first monasteries were actually renovated Roman villas and estates with gardens that were used for communal living and the prayers of the monks. In medieval monasteries, the cloister with a garden, along with the church, was the heart of the community, and all the most important facilities were grouped around it. It served as a place for socializing, as well as solitude and meditation. While the local community had access to the orchard and vegetable garden, the cloister garden was only used by the monks. The cathedral in Monreale, Sicily was built near the cathedral and the cloister began in 1172 during the reign of Norman King William II and was completed in just eight years. Its cloister is one of the most beautiful and best-preserved in Europe, with visible oriental influences in its architectural design.
Since the 10th century, with the strengthening of trade and cultural links with the countries of the Middle and Far East, previously unknown species of flowers such as tulips, hyacinths, and mimosa have arrived in Europe, and from that time on, decorative flower gardens have become increasingly rich and important.
Castle gardens were like fortresses, with very limited space available, just like monasteries. The gardens of fortified castles were not created solely for economic reasons, but more as an expression of the need for recreation and being in nature, and were called gardens for enjoyment, although useful plants were mostly planted in them. An important role in the emergence of this type of garden was played The troubadour art, which flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries in the south of France, in Provence, at that time the richest and most advanced region in Europe, where there was a continuity of Roman culture, but also strong Byzantine and Arab influences. The origin of troubadour poetry was the beauty of life and the beauty of love, and its stage was the gardens of delights, les jardins de delice.
The Queen Eleanor’s Garden, next to the Great Hall of Winchester Castle in Great Britain, was designed in 1986 based on medieval gardens.
It was named after two rulers with the same name – Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III, and Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I. The materials and plant species used in the garden are faithful replicas of medieval ones.
In the 14th century, at the end of the Middle Ages, such gardens were not only established next to fortified feudal castles, but also next to the estates of wealthy patricians outside the cities. They were particularly numerous in the central and northern parts of Italy and from there. The Renaissance type of garden will develop later. Under the name “gardens of love,” they were mentioned and described in literary works of the late Middle Ages. For example, in the second day of the Decameron, Boccaccio describes a garden in which distinguished Florentines sought refuge after fleeing plague-stricken Florence: The appearance of that garden and its beautiful design, plants, and a fountain with a small stream flowing from it, delighted all the ladies and three young men so much that they began to convince each other that if paradise existed on earth, it could not look any different than that garden, and they couldn’t imagine any beauty that could be added to it.
Roman de la Rose
Probably the most well-known and popular literary work of the French Middle Ages is the Romance of the Rose (Roman de la Rose), a poem that was started by Guillaume de Lorris around 1230 and completed by Jean de Meun several decades later. The work is written as an allegory of a dream and speaks about the poet’s love for a girl symbolized by a rose in his dream. In the garden, a bud has bloomed. To this day, over three hundred handwritten versions of this work have been preserved, many of which were lavishly illustrated. The gardens depicted in these versions were surrounded by high walls, and in their center, there was a magnificent fountain around which young men and women would gather and entertain themselves with conversation, music, or strolls.
The meaning of the garden
Throughout the entire Middle Ages, one of the most important characteristics of a garden was its enclosure, with no integration with the surrounding nature. This was partly due to the uncertain times and constant danger of war, and partly an expression of the general medieval need for closure and self-sufficiency, which is why the medieval garden is often called a “hortus conclusus,” a closed garden. This term comes from the Song of Solomon:
“The Madonna with Child” by Dutch painter Diers Boutsa was created in the mid-15th century. The enclosure and strict geometry of the greenery-adorned interior space stand in stark contrast. I wander through the luxurious landscape outside the tall fence wall.
There is a spring in my garden,
a source of living water
flowing from Lebanon.
Arise, North wind,
blow, South wind,
blow over my garden,
let its scents flow.
Let my love come into his garden,
let him eat its finest fruits…
According to medieval theological interpretations, the term “hortus conclusus” from Solomon’s Song refers to the Virgin Mary as a symbol of purity and innocence. In this vein, the entrance to the garden represents closed gates, “porta clausa,” through which only God can pass. This symbolism is particularly present in late medieval art, where the Madonna and Child are almost always depicted sitting in a garden surrounded by walls or fences, with an idyllic landscape of lush trees and flowers in the background. Among the flowers, roses and lilies are most commonly portrayed, as the red rose symbolically represents the blood and sufferings of Christ, while the lily is a symbol of purity and innocence, and thus one of the attributes of the Virgin Mary.
Labyrinth
The labyrinth was a very common theme in medieval gardens. Unlike those found on the floors of Gothic cathedrals, the symbolic meaning of a garden labyrinth is more secular in nature and is usually associated with the concept of love. A garden labyrinth is the perfect place for secret romantic meetings. According to legend, English King Henry II built a labyrinth in the Woodstock forest to hide his mistress Rosamund from his jealous wife.
The labyrinth was usually formed using trimmed and shaped hedges, with secret structures hidden deep within the garden. The hedges were often very tall, and in some places, there were even tunnels made of trees instead of shrubs. Some gardens even had multiple levels of interconnected labyrinths with stairs.
Images like these, as well as illuminated manuscripts, are the most important source of what we know today about medieval gardens. None of them have been preserved. Besides through old paintings and illustrations, some information has reached us through stories and anecdotes.
They stored and cared for ancient traditions as best they could, medieval gardeners deserve credit for the continuity of the art of gardening from the earliest times to the present day. Knowledge about medieval gardens is scarce, but sufficient to understand that the Middle Ages were not as gray and dark as we usually imagine. They preserved and nurtured the ancient tradition as best they could, and as a result, the continuity of garden art extends from the earliest times to the present day.