PHYSIC GARDENS – THE ORIGINS

PHYSIC GARDENS – THE ORIGINS

The earliest references to intentional growing of medicinal plants go deep into antiquity. Royal gardens dedicated to economic use are attested since the second millennium BC from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, current Mexico, and China. Many of these gardens included species acquired during military campaigns or in the course of special expeditions focused on plant collection.

Biblical texts, too, mention various plants and their use, for instance hemp being used in ritual baths, hyssop for purification, or mandragora with its rich symbolism. Medieval and Renaissance paintings often situated scenes of spiritual significance into gardens that featured typical medicinal species such as strawberries (Annunciation from Jeníkov, around 1460), the common daisy (Leonardo da Vinci, app. 1472–1775), or white lilies, which aside from therapeutic effects also symbolised purity.

A tradition of growing medicinal plants in monastic communities north of the Alps is attested for monasteries in St Gallen, Reichenau, or Rupertsberg by Bingen. In parallel with the Christian environment, knowledge of medicinal plants developed also in Islamic Spain. The conception of early medieval gardens in Al-Andalus anticipated later botanical gardens; this is exemplified by Huerta del Rey, garden of the physician and pharmacist Ibn al-Wafid (999–1075) in Toledo, which was later developed by the agronomist, botanist, chronicler Ibn Bassal. After Toledo was conquered by Christians in 1085, Ibn Bassal founded a garden in Seville and enriched it with plants gathered during scientific expeditions to Marocco, Persia, and Egypt.

In our territory, of key importance in spreading the knowledge of medicinal plants was especially the Benedictine monastery in Rajhrad, founded according to tradition in 1045 at a site of an earlier hillfort.