The Medioeval Garden

The medieval garden is not only a place of heavenly delights, but was also useful for feeding and providing medical care for the inhabitants of the castle and the village. The garden has recently been reconstructed through careful study of iconographical and written sources and shows the enormous botanical knowledge of the Middle Ages. The garden is divided into four sections:

• Hortus (the fruit and vegetable garden)
• Hortus Conclusus (the garden of Love)
• Herbularius (the garden of medicinal and aromatic plants)
• Pomarium (the orchard)

This reconstruction is based on a list of plants drawn up in 795 AD (the Capitolary De villis) ordered by Charlemagne and parts of the map of the Abbey of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Thus the Vasanello medieval garden aims at providing a living example of a garden with European indigenous plants, prior to the discovery of America.