The Cloisters Medieval Garden

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are no surviving European Medieval gardens, and little documentation about them. In New York City, we have The Cloisters, which is a composite of at least five different ancient European cloisters, on the banks of the Hudson in Fort Tryon Park. The Cloisters is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and dedicated to the scholarly study of Medieval Europe.

Cloister refers to a covered walkway that surrounds a quadrangle, usually in a religious institution. Typically there is a wall on one side of the walkway, and a colonnade on the other opening into the quadrangle, which is frequently a garden. This cloister, or “closed place”, is the heart of the medieval European garden. The Cloisters includes three such gardens:

• The Cuxa Cloister and Gardens – consists of crossed paths and a central fountain, in which both medieval and modern plant species are grown.
• The Bonnefont Cloister and Garden – an herb garden that contains more than 250 plant species grown in the middle ages. Hardscaping elements include a central well head, raised beds, and wattle fences (woven of strips of willow or hazel).
• The Trie Cloister and Garden – a garden planted with medieval species that mimic the “millefleurs” background of tapestries, such as the Unicorn series that is housed at the Cloisters.

Learn more about The Cloisters, the medieval collection, and the gardens: http://youtu.be/tiYENYz_v4s 



John D. Rockefeller Jr. provided funds for the building and purchasing land for the Cloisters, as well as across the river, with the stipulation that it not be developed to keep the feeling of an ancient monastery. Building pieces were purchased in Europe from a variety of sources, and the architect Charles Collens incorporated them into a unified whole. The Cloisters houses the George Grey Barnard medieval collection. The Cloisters opened in 1938. Learn more: http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters

Elements of the Medieval Garden

Life in the middle ages was difficult for most people, and gardening was a practical necessity. Plants were grown for their usefulness, with fruits, vegetables, and healing plants as the main focus. Some flowers, typically selected for their religious symbolism, were grown to decorate church sanctuaries. Some elements of the medieval garden, summarized from Christopher Thacker’s The History of Gardens and augmented by Penelope Hobhouse in The Story of Gardening:

• Square, enclosed garden – the square or rectangle garden comes from the shape of the cloister. A wall encloses the garden for protection and privacy. It also has religious symbolism; in paintings, the Virgin Mary is often depicted in a walled garden. Garden beds within the walls are often square or rectangular as well, with paths between them. According to Thacker, this basic layout forms the basis later for all formal gardens in Europe (reinforced by exposure to the Persian four-square garden design).
• Hedges and trellises – for the prosperous, walls were built of stone; for others, walls took the form of hedges of bushes or trees, or fences woven of willow or hazel strips. Trellises and arbors were also woven and provided shade, protection, and a structure for climbing plants.
• Water fountain – a water source was required for irrigation, and seen as a symbolic fount of life. Sometimes a fish pond was maintained for harvesting fresh fish.
• Raised beds – raised beds provided planting areas with good drainage. The height of the beds varies in depictions, which may indicate there was an awareness that lower beds worked for drier soil, and higher beds were required for moist soil.
• Orchards and vines – fruiting trees and grapes were grown where the climate allowed. Bees were often kept as well, providing honey (and pollination).
• Plants – produce and herb gardens were often separated from healing plants. In monasteries, the healing plants were often grown close to the infirmary.
• Flowery mead – many depictions show the ground covered with small flowers and grasses, in sort of a ground covering.

Look for some of these elements in the demonstration herb garden at Stafford Castle in England.

Herb Garden, Stafford Castle - spring color and a profusion of scents in the replica medieval herb garden at Stafford Castle. Copyright Simon Huguet and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

 

Garden History – Medieval Gardens

It’s time for more garden history, this time looking at Medieval European gardens. I’ve been using Christopher Thacker’s classic text The History of Gardens for my research, and comparing notes with The Story of Gardening by the British gardener, Penelope Hobhouse. The Medieval period—also called the Dark Ages—extends from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5^th century to the 15^th century. The thousand year period is typically categorized into three main periods – early (476-1000), High (1000-1300), and late middle ages (1300-1453). Out of this period of decline, illiteracy, upheaval, war, power struggles, The Plague, and establishment of the Christian church, Western culture was born.

There are no surviving gardens, and few written documents about medieval gardens and gardening. Information has been pieced together from literature, illustrated prayer books, art and tapestries, records of monastic life, and a few documents. It is unclear whether these documents represent reality, or an idealization. Three key documents include:

• A monastery proposal found in St. Gall in Switzerland, with a garden plan that includes herbs and medicinal plants (820 AD).
• The regulations for administering towns in Charlemagne’s empire, with a list plants and fruit trees that must be grown, called Capitulare de villis vel curtis imperii (795).
• A Latin poem about a “little garden”, with first-hand knowledge of the pleasure of work, the plants, and the produce, called Liber de cultura hortorum, by monk Walafrid Strabo (809-49).

Piecing together the information, scholars believe that early medieval gardens were “useful” – centering around produce, orchards, and healing plants. Only later did medieval gardens start to include elements of the pleasure garden – beauty for its own sake. Monasteries often had access to ancient Latin texts, making them havens for learning and technology. Monks grew their own food and healing plants, using ancient farming techniques adapted to their respective climates. The healing knowledge and plants benefited both travelers and the surrounding community. Monks also grew flowers to decorate the church; some flowers represented religious themes, such as the rose representing Mary or the blood of martyrs, and the lily representing purity of faith. In this video, observe the art for gardening evidence:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lM86cmbYZeQ