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The Cistercian monks were not just known for their pioneer work in architecture and land development, but also as very talented garden designers. The Monastery Gardens played a very important role in supplying the monks with fruit and vegetables, as well as in the production of medicinal herbs.
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During the Middle Ages, gardens had
a religious significance in the minds of men. This
is expressed in the symbol of the "Garden of
Eden". The daily routine of life and the work
with herbs, flowers and trees in the Monastery Garden
taught the monks to think about the transitoriness
and the new origins of the Beautiful and Good in life.
The central Monastery Garden is surrounded by the Cloisters square and is called the Cloister Garden. The enclosure of this garden is related to the medieval ideal view of what the Garden of Paradise must be like. Based on their etymological origins, both terms, garden and paradise, designate in the same way an area separated from the outside world (Garden: from the Indo-European "ghordo-s" = woven piece, fence, obstacle. Paradise: from the Old Persian word for fenced-in or walled-in enclosure). In this sense, the garden symbolized at that time the entire Monastery, (in German "Kloster" from the Latin word "claustrum"), which also designated an area which was strictly separated from the outside world.
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Productive gardens are mentioned in addition to the cloister garden in the "St. Gallen Monastery Plan". This was an ideal plan for the layout of a monastery, which had a strong influence on the design of the newly founded monasteries of the Benedictine and therefore also of the Cistercian traditions. This plan included the vegetable garden with 18 rectangular beds, the cemetery, which was to be used as an orchard, and the herb garden near the Hospital.
Unfortunately nothing has been preserved of the medieval gardens at Eberbach. The documentation of the garden layout of that period was also lost. The destruction during the Thirty Years' War left its mark on the gardens as well. The redesign and layout of the various garden complexes were only begun following the economic recovery of the Abbey at the beginning of the 18th century. |
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The design concept implemented was based in many ways on secular influences and led to the realization of contemporary formal gardens of the kind which had already been built up to 50 years before in Germany in palace gardens and parks. The period of the Baroque-style gardens had almost passed by the time the Cistercians in Eberbach had adopted this style. The Cloister Garden was especially richly decorated and highlighted by several fountains and waterspouts, trimmed hedges, sculptures and borders. It featured a meticulously planned, symmetrical subdivison of the garden area.
Vegetables continued to be grown in the more remote areas such as in the "Schmidtgarten", but there the vegetable beds were laid out in a beam-shaped, symmetrical structure and were configured as masonry-enclosed, elevated vegetable plots. Water was also used here as a design element with significant symbolic character. The "finer" vegetable varieties were primarily cultivated in the productive gardens, and the larger areas used for orchards. Down in the valley, a dam was built across the Kisselbach stream to be able to breed fish.
The Cistercians traded with their products and exchanged thoughts with other people across Europe. This brought them into contact with many "exotic" cultivated plants which they tested and selected depending upon their suitability for the local winegrowing climate. |
  
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The later gardening activities during the post-monastery period followed in the still young tradition of monastic experimental zeal. Outstanding examples of this tradition are the Teaching Vineyard near the eastern entrance to the Monastery and the grand trees in the Great Garden.
The Teaching Vineyard was realized as an initiative of the former "Staatsdomäne Kloster Eberbach"during the 1970's and was intended to give an overview of the historical and actually applied regional winegrowing techniques. As part of this initiative, many widely-raised grape vine varieties were planted in the upper section of the Garden, to be able to observe their differing foliage and grape forms.
By the way, the Vineyard is located in the "Pomarium", an area which was always cultivated as an orchard or as a vineyard. Today's eastern access road below the "Pomarium" was only paved as a roadway around 1920. Its historic predecessor was the "Konventsallee".
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The consistently cool and damp local climate of the Kisselbach Valley was very conducive to the growth of the impressive trees in the Great Garten and in the Hospital Garden, some of which are taller than the rooftop of the Cloister buildings and of the Monastery Church. Supposedly they stem from the gift of seedling plants by a Tunesian consul to the Grand Duke of Nassau during the 19th century. He is said to have had some of them planted here in Eberbach.
The tree of life (Thuja occidentalis) is native to North America, was already cultivated in Europe in 1536, and can become up to 1,500 years old when planted in damp ground. The trees you see here are probably not more than 180 years old. The Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica ‚Glauca') and the Lebanese Cedar (Cedrus libani) both of which are native to North Africa, belong to the group of monumental and long-lived trees.
During the 1970's, the gardeners of the former "Staatsdomäne" planted a sequoia tree. The Sequoiadendron giganteum is well known from the western part of North America and reaches a height of up to 80 meters. If all goes well, it will still be growing in the Kisselbach Valley when humanity looks back on the 20th century as we look back today on the ancient Egyptian civilization. After all, its life expectancy reaches 4,000 years.
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| If you would like to have more detailed
information about the design and structure of the gardens
at Eberbach Monastery, we recommend that you take part in
the Theme Tour
"Monastic Garden Design - Then and Now"
(available in English and German). |
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