Monastery gardens
To European agriculture, having arable land with meadows and pastures stretching between vast stretches of forests. The Celts introduced a new element. namely, gardens and vineyards. Charlemagne, and even more to his son. Louis the Pious (814 – 840 r.), it was important to popularize the skill of growing new plants, from herbs, and ending with fruit trees. In the Middle Ages, gardening teachers were mainly monks. Monastery cloisters, being the main place for meditation, surrounded a square of greenery, divided lengthwise and broadly by paths, with a well inside. Vegetables were grown here for the needs of their own kitchen. spice and medicinal herbs, and lilies and roses for altar decorations. The monks brought seeds from Mediterranean countries, rhizomes and flower bulbs. During distant pilgrimages, they got to know new plant species, which they then cultivated in their own monastery gardens and transferred to other monasteries. From the lego source, the gardens were supplied not only to the nearby castles and palaces, but also green areas of developing cities - hence the townspeople drew ideas and encouragement to arrange their gardens. The monk was not only a clergyman and scientist, but at the same time a farmer and a gardener. Even today we read the didactic poem with interest .. Hortulus” Strabo (809 r.). abbot of the monastery located on the island of Reichenau; according to the chronicles. Strabo only taught me, but he enjoyed working in the monastery garden himself Much later the Archbishop of Cologne played an important role in the development of the gardens, Albert (1207 – 1280 r.), versatile scholar, nature researcher and patron of the art of gardening. In his work "De Vegetabilibus" he laid the foundations of gardening. He is credited with establishing the first greenhouse in the monastery garden for the cultivation of sensitive plants. The garden then already. he expressed no longing for a lost paradise; it has become a place of concentration, silence and continuous work.
