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 Garden of Eden- its fencing; 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 - everything human feelings. 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 pond 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. It was often arranged and small pond, where fish were bred for fasting days. This small garden In the courtyard of the monastery there were usually small trees - fruit or ornamental trees and flowers.
However, commercial orchards, apothecary gardens and kitchen gardens were usually established outside the monastery walls. Small Orchard inside the monastery courtyard was a symbol of heaven. 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 were specifically engaged in gardening and vegetable gardening and were famous for it. Every detail in the monastery gardens had a symbolic meaning to remind the monks of the basics 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. They were also grown here medicinal herbs, and poisonous, herbs for decoration and had symbolic meaning. Special attention devoted to fragrant herbs. Their fragrantness 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.
At the end of the 4th century. the brilliant era of antiquity with itsThe 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 almighty Cardinal Volsi, who donated it Henry VIII. If Volsi was inspired by the layout of Italian palazzos of the Renaissance, then the king introduced elements of gloomy medieval architecture into the architecture, and also built Big hall for playing tennis (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 amount of symmetrically placed arches and pergolas in different corners will emphasize the overall composition of the winter garden, the utilitarian character of which will be given by a small area with fruit trees planted in tubs, containers with flowers, and 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 the monastery gardens and took a strong place in subsequent park construction.
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 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 occupation was considered both deeply Christian and respectable: labyrinths in Europe became mandatory element 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 at first 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, Fischer, as part of cultural program During this event, he 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, unconventional materials, and other original details.
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 living green hedge, fortunately, 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. Haircut allows you to vary required size hedges 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. It can be made through, 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
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.
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 - 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.
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 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 and the Renaissance in Italy is called the Middle Ages, or the Middle Ages. 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. The Middle Ages, which lasted almost a thousand years, did not leave exemplary gardens and did not create its own Gothic style of garden architecture. A gloomy, harsh religion left its mark on the lives of peoples Western Europe and dulled the joy of perceiving the beauty expressed in gardens with beautiful flowers. Gardens first began to appear only in monasteries. 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 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. The monastery garden - its layout and the plants in it, were endowed with allegorical symbolism. The garden, separated by walls from sin and the intervention of dark forces, became a symbol of the Garden of Eden. 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 crosswise into four square parts by narrow paths. In the center, at the intersection of the paths, a well, a fountain, and a small pond 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 or the “tree of life” - the tree of paradise - a small orange or apple tree, and a cross was also installed or a rose bush was planted. Often a small pond was built in the monastery garden where fish were bred for fasting days. This small garden in the courtyard of the monastery usually had small trees - fruit or ornamental trees and flowers. A small orchard inside the monastery courtyard was a symbol of paradise. It often included a monastery cemetery. According to their purpose, the gardens were divided into apothecary gardens with all kinds of herbs and medicinal plants, kitchen gardens with vegetable crops for the needs of the monastery, and orchards. Monasteries at that time were perhaps the only place where medical care was provided to both monks and pilgrims. On small patches of land, sparingly illuminated by the sun due to high walls and roofs, only a few favorite plants were grown - roses, lilies, carnations, daisies, irises. Since there were few gardens in the Middle Ages, the plants grown were highly valued and strictly protected.
The labyrinth garden is a technique that was formed in 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 to the center in complex ways. In the Middle Ages, the idea of labyrinths was used by the church. For repentant pilgrims, mosaic spiral winding paths were laid out on the floor of the temple, along which believers had to crawl on their knees from the entrance to the temple to the altar to atone for their sins. So from performing the tedious ritual in the church we came to fun walks in the gardens, where the labyrinth was moved, where the paths were separated by high walls of trimmed hedges. From such a labyrinth there was, as a rule, only one or two exits, which could not be so easily discovered. Occupying a small area, this labyrinth created the impression of an endless length of paths and made it possible to take long walks. Perhaps in such labyrinths the hatches of a secret underground passage were hidden. Subsequently, labyrinth gardens became widespread in regular and even landscape parks in Europe. Castle gardens or Feudal type of gardens. Gardens in castles had a special character. Feudal gardens, unlike monastic ones, were smaller in size, located inside castles and fortresses - they 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 that later became widespread in parks. They arranged covered alleys of grapes, rose gardens, grew apple trees, as well as flowers planted in flowerbeds according to special designs. The castle gardens 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 castle inhabitants that filled its courtyards. Both medicinal and poisonous herbs, herbs for decoration and those with symbolic meaning were grown here. Ornamental flowers and bushes were planted in medieval gardens, especially roses brought by the crusaders from the Middle East. Sometimes trees grew in the castle gardens - lindens and oaks. Near the defensive fortifications of the castle, “meadows of flowers” were set up for tournaments and social fun. It was at this time that decorative elements such as flower beds, trellises, pergolas appeared, and a fashion for potted plants appeared. Spicy aromatic plants, flowers and exotic plants were grown in pots. houseplants that came to Europe after the Crusades. At the castles of large feudal lords, more extensive gardens were created not only for utilitarian purposes, but also for recreation. Gardens of the late Middle Ages were equipped with various pavilions; hills from which one could look at the surrounding life outside the garden walls - both urban and rural. During this period, labyrinths, which were previously common only in the courtyards of monasteries, also spread. Paths garden labyrinths surrounded by walls or bushes. Judging by the frequent images gardening work, the gardens were carefully cultivated, the beds and flower beds were enclosed in stone protective walls, the gardens were surrounded either by wooden fences, on which images of heraldic symbols were sometimes painted with paints, or stone walls with luxurious gates.
