PROJECTS
GARDEN
Member of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI )
Historic Gardens Foundation
"To the Gardener he orders to leave on all sides of the garden a strip of fallow land in order that at the right time green wild herbs and beautiful flowers could praise the beautiful Father of all Things, and in the garden he wants to live aside a little area for sweet-scented herbs and flowers, which recall to the onlooker the Eternal Fragrance."
Fra Tommaso Da Celano: Vita di S.Francesco di Assisi.
The Garden is in the historical centre of the town of Assisi , which has provided the inspiration within its medieval context.
It tries to convey the atmosphere of Monastic Gardens, enhancing the awareness of the role which monastic communities had in the Middle Ages, in preserving and advancing the old botanical and medical knowledge, as places where one could grow food,medicine, flowers for the altar, find peace and practice contemplation.
It is the only known ethnobotanic garden in Italy.
It contains some of the herbaceous plants known prior to the XV century, indigenous to the Mediterranean area. "most of them supplied by the Laboratoires Yves Rocher" It provides information and mythical references about the plants, linking old pagan lore with Christian meanings, giving insight into the economy and wellbeing of our ancestor's society and a better understanding of the function of the diversity of our native flora.
It has been created with the help of the local schoolchildren as part of the Programme of Environmental Education and provides an "open air laboratory"for them, in which to practice organic methods including waste composting.
The Assisi Nature Council invites you to join in its unique educational project which will illustrate self-sufficiency and sustainability of monastic communities in the Middle Ages and will give you a concrete experience of the beauty and usefulness of the endangered Mediterranean world of herbs and flowers and its relation to a particular "genius loci".
The Assisi Nature Council joins a world-wide Campaign for the defence of Biodiversity according to the principle:" Think globally, act locally", following recommendations of the IUCN, and in cooperation with the educational Programme of Botanic Gardens Conservation Internationaland concentrating the attention on the preservation of Mediterranean Biodiversity.The problem regards the whole Planet , but can be resolved especially at national and local level.
The Rio de Janeiro Convention for the Preservation of Biodiversity,signed by 120 nations, is not really known to the general public and therefore the danger of the loss of natural resources is not enough publicised.
Designation of parks and protected areas , with their resources, must become a priority andthe Assisi Nature Council has concentrated its efforts on the necessity of preserving the local plant heritage.
GARDEN
Member of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI )
Historic Gardens Foundation
"To the Gardener he orders to leave on all sides of the garden a strip of fallow land in order that at the right time green wild herbs and beautiful flowers could praise the beautiful Father of all Things, and in the garden he wants to live aside a little area for sweet-scented herbs and flowers, which recall to the onlooker the Eternal Fragrance."
Fra Tommaso Da Celano: Vita di S.Francesco di Assisi.
THE MEDIEVAL HERBGARDEN:
The Garden is in the historical centre of the town of Assisi , which has provided the inspiration within its medieval context.
It tries to convey the atmosphere of Monastic Gardens, enhancing the awareness of the role which monastic communities had in the Middle Ages, in preserving and advancing the old botanical and medical knowledge, as places where one could grow food,medicine, flowers for the altar, find peace and practice contemplation.
It is the only known ethnobotanic garden in Italy.
It contains some of the herbaceous plants known prior to the XV century, indigenous to the Mediterranean area. "most of them supplied by the Laboratoires Yves Rocher" It provides information and mythical references about the plants, linking old pagan lore with Christian meanings, giving insight into the economy and wellbeing of our ancestor's society and a better understanding of the function of the diversity of our native flora.
It has been created with the help of the local schoolchildren as part of the Programme of Environmental Education and provides an "open air laboratory"for them, in which to practice organic methods including waste composting.
The Assisi Nature Council invites you to join in its unique educational project which will illustrate self-sufficiency and sustainability of monastic communities in the Middle Ages and will give you a concrete experience of the beauty and usefulness of the endangered Mediterranean world of herbs and flowers and its relation to a particular "genius loci".
::
Patron:David Bellamy
:: Founder and
curator: Maria Luisa Cohen
:: Sponsor:
Laboratoire Yves Rocher
:: Scientific Adviser:
Michel Cambornac, Ethnobotanic Dept.
Yves Rocher
BIODIVERSITY IN MEDIEVAL HERB GARDEN…
The Assisi Nature Council joins a world-wide Campaign for the defence of Biodiversity according to the principle:" Think globally, act locally", following recommendations of the IUCN, and in cooperation with the educational Programme of Botanic Gardens Conservation Internationaland concentrating the attention on the preservation of Mediterranean Biodiversity.The problem regards the whole Planet , but can be resolved especially at national and local level.
The Rio de Janeiro Convention for the Preservation of Biodiversity,signed by 120 nations, is not really known to the general public and therefore the danger of the loss of natural resources is not enough publicised.
Designation of parks and protected areas , with their resources, must become a priority andthe Assisi Nature Council has concentrated its efforts on the necessity of preserving the local plant heritage.
Bio Diversity in the
Medieval herb garden
Herbaceous plants or "simples"officinal when they heal, Culinary for the kitchen, or aromatic and decorative have many secrets to disclose.
Already known from the antiquity and cultivated with Love, in the medieval monasteries, they are coming back to embelish our gardens with teir taste, scent, colour, utility and historic charm.
Manifesto for the Gardens of Third Millenium
See Strategies for garden's preservation and creation in Assisi Nature Council International Conference:
Gardens for the Third Millennium: From the Garden of Eden to Urban Paradise
Assisi 15/18 October 1998 First European Conference on the protection of urban green spaces and their promotion as assets for human well-being and for the conservation of cultural and biological diversity
DOWNLOAD: Third_Millennium.pdf