The medieval garden was small in size, usually regular, with the area divided into squares and rectangles.
Gardens of that time were primarily for utilitarian purposes. Medicinal plants were grown in the gardens and fruit and berry crops. To a certain extent, they can be considered a prototype of botanical gardens. A new detail appears in the layout - labyrinths - a network of winding and intertwining paths. This planning motif found application not only in the gardens of the Middle Ages, but also in gardens of later times.
At the castles of large feudal lords, more extensive gardens were created not only for utilitarian purposes, but also for recreation. Such decorative elements, like flower beds, trellises, pergolas, etc.
In the first third of the 16th century. many gardens appeared in France. Among them is in Artois, near Paris, on the high bank of the Seine. The Charles V park in the Louvre is famous.
At the end of the Middle Ages, pavilions, gazebos, and swimming pools appeared in the gardens.
Monastic type of gardens.
The layout of the courtyards was regular, based on straightness. Fruit trees, grapes, vegetables, flowers, and medicinal plants were grown in the monastery gardens. The main features of the monastery type of gardens were their privacy, contemplation, silence, and utility. Some monastery gardens were decorated with trellis arbors and low walls to separate one area from another. Among the monastery gardens, the St. Gallen Garden in Switzerland was especially famous.
Feudal type of gardens.
The gardens of Emperor Charlemagne (768-814) were very famous; they were divided into utilitarian and “amusing” ones. The “amusing” gardens were decorated with lawns, flowers, low trees, birds and a menagerie.
Feudal gardens, unlike monastic ones, were smaller in size and located inside castles and fortresses. They arranged covered alleys of grapes, rose gardens, grew apple trees, as well as flowers planted in flowerbeds according to special designs. Of these gardens, the most famous are the Kremlin garden of Frederick II (1215-1258) in Nuremberg and the royal garden of Charles V (1519-1556) with a plantation of cherries, laurel trees and flower beds of lilies and roses.
In 1525, the first Botanical Garden. Following him, approximately the same gardens appeared in Milan, Venice, Padua, Bologna, Rome, Florence, Paris, Leiden, Wurzburg, Leipzig, Hesse, Regensburg. Along with botanical gardens, private gardens were also established.
With the discovery of America in 1493 and with the development of trade relations with India, gardens began to be filled with exotic plants. Fruit growing and cultivation became widespread medicinal plants, oranges, laurels, figs, apple trees, cherries, etc. were cultivated in the gardens, and ponds, cascades, pools, fountains, gazebos, and pavilions were also built. Utilitarian gardens gradually turned into decorative ones.
Moorish type of gardens.
At the beginning of the 7th century, Moorish gardens appeared in Europe. They were similar to the ancient Arab ones, but they carried more grace and differed from them in the boldness of their design and the refined grace of their forms. Moorish gardens were divided into external and internal. The external gardens were not luxurious and were intended for household needs. They were planting fruit trees and mulberries. There was a fountain in the center of each outdoor garden.
The inner gardens were surrounded on all sides by buildings and beautiful outbuildings in the form of arcades and galleries, which were sometimes in two tiers. Trees and shrubs planted in gardens were not trimmed. The most characteristic gardens of this type were the Alhambra and the Generalife
Fenced by fortress walls, medieval monasteries, castles and cities with their enclosed territories did not contribute to the establishment of large gardens.
Almost no descriptions of medieval gardens have survived. A clear idea of them is given only by images that have survived on the walls of churches, which show that the gardens were occupied small area, had rectangular shape, adjacent to the houses.
The garden area was surrounded by a stone wall covered with grapes. Inside the garden there were covered alleys and gazebos.
A characteristic feature of a medieval garden was a labyrinth. Plants were planted by variety in small square beds, in linear order. Fragrant flowers (roses, lilies) and medicinal plants were planted.
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, constant internecine wars and uprisings, and the time of the establishment 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 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 small gardens at monasteries and castles, i.e. in areas relatively protected from destruction.
Monastery gardens. Herbal medicinal and ornamental plants. 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. The main features of the monastery type of gardens were their privacy, contemplation, silence, and utility. Some monastery gardens were decorated with trellis arbors and low walls to separate one area from another. Among the monastery gardens, the St. Gallen Garden in Switzerland was especially famous.
Feudal type of gardens. Castle gardens were built 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. In the gardens, covered alleys of grapes, rose gardens were arranged, apple trees were grown, as well as flowers planted in flowerbeds according to special designs. Of these gardens, the most famous are the Kremlin garden of Frederick II (1215-1258) in Nuremberg and the royal garden of Charles V (1519-1556) with a plantation of cherries, laurel trees and flower beds of lilies and roses. The gardens of Emperor Charlemagne (768-814) were very famous; they were divided into utilitarian and<потешные>. <Потешные>the gardens were decorated with lawns, flowers, low trees, birds and a menagerie.
Decorative elements such as flower beds, trellises, pergolas, etc. appeared. At the castles of large feudal lords, more extensive gardens were created - prato, not only for utilitarian purposes, but also for recreation.
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 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 became widespread in regular and even landscape parks. In Russia there was such a labyrinth Summer Garden(not preserved), the 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. In 1525, the first botanical garden was established in Pisa. Following him, approximately the same gardens appeared in Milan, Venice, Padua, Bologna, Rome, Florence, Paris, Leiden, Wurzburg, Leipzig, Hesse, Regensburg. Along with botanical gardens, private gardens were also established.
With the discovery of America in 1493 and with the development of trade relations with India, gardens began to be filled with exotic plants. Fruit growing and the cultivation of medicinal plants became widespread; oranges, laurels, figs, apple trees, cherries, etc. were cultivated in the gardens, and ponds, cascades, pools, fountains, gazebos, and pavilions were also built. Utilitarian gardens gradually turned into decorative ones.
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, constant internecine wars and uprisings, and 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 to the center in complex ways. 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 became 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). Gardening and botany reached a high level of 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. Formed here new type garden - 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. The garden is freely planted with 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 composition center, most often this is a swimming pool. The entrance to the garden is often placed not in the center, but on the side, thereby breaking symmetry and enriching big picture 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 channels, 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.
The color scheme is characterized by a combination of the overall restrained color scheme of the walls, the greenery of trees and shrubs with bright splashes of beautiful flowering plants or colored coverings. Decorative paving is one of the important elements of the 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 room for pious reflection and prayer. 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 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 I usually had low trees-- fruit or decorative and flowers. However, orchards, apothecary gardens and kitchen gardens were usually established outside the monastery walls. 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. This rescript included about 60 names of various flowers 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" was the only medieval garden that was compositionally 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 " eternal life"), a tree or an ornamental bush. Sometimes the "vertograd" was called "paradise", "heavenly courtyard". The Carthusian monasteries and the Cameduli monasteries were "private", the communication of monks was limited to a minimum. Hence the special structure of the monasteries of these orders. The buildings formed regular quadrilateral. 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 "monasteries" - 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.
The term “pharmaceutical garden” is narrow; it implies 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. Monasteries at that time enjoyed universal fame and respect, and were, perhaps, the only place where they provided medical care, 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 vegetable crops. 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 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 works of great scientists of the East, translated by monks into Latin, which contained invaluable information about the types and properties of plants. This is how the first collection gardens appeared. They were small in size, 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 predecessors of the exhibition 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.
More late gardens Herbal gardens created at university botanical gardens, and existing for educational purposes, were also planned in the form of 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 wide distribution at that time scientific knowledge and, in particular, natural sciences. The first scientific botanical gardens appeared in Italy in the very early XIV V. (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 18th century. plant displays in most medical botanical gardens remained few in number, differing little from medieval monastery gardens. They were located in the garden area in the form of separate groups of 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 for classifying plants. 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 systems plants became widespread in the 17th-18th centuries. Gradually, in the process historical development botanical gardens, they have a new function - educational and pedagogical.
The history of botanical gardens in Russia is closely connected with the origin and development of Russian botanical science. Already by the beginning of the 17th century. in our country there was a lot of information regarding practical use various plants both in the agricultural field and in medicine. Methods of using medicinal plants and their description medical properties as a rule, they were set out 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 medical practice and the increasing need for production medicines The number of apothecary 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 every more or less wealthy person paid tribute. From this passion for collecting plants arose many botanical gardens of the time, in particular famous gardens P. Demidov in Moscow, A. Razumovsky in Gorenki near Moscow, etc. Some of them contained 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. To such dendrological parks, occupying 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 educational 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 in connection with this of the most complex urban planning problems - 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 the artistic features and dendrological properties of various species, methods of their design, possible groupings of plantings in parks, etc. the most important conditions creating a landscape.
So gradually, in the process of their historical development, botanical gardens from apothecary gardens of the Middle Ages have turned into a complex organism in our time. 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 the recreation in certain areas of the garden of entire geographical landscapes and botanical-historical exhibitions (rock gardens, Japanese, Italian gardens, etc.), which cannot do without landscape an architect who achieves artistic unity of all the diversity of elements that make up the botanical garden.
