A design product or a projection of the Orthodox mentality? Principles for Guidelines for Landscaping Temple Grounds Landscaping of Temples.
When starting to landscape the temple area, both a professional designer and an amateur designer must understand how important it is to avoid mistakes in work. After all, the temple is visited by many pious people who, upon entering the territory, tune in to a state of prayer and contemplation.
The temple area is a cult space where there are no “random” objects and plants. Each element has its own special meaning: murals, sculptures, trees and flowers. So, for example, violet is a symbol of humility - the very first and most revered virtue by Orthodox people. Inconspicuous, though beautiful, she reaches for the sun, lost in the grass. By the way, the grass on the territory of the temple is also not simple, but “silky” and holy, because, as St. Seraphim of Sarov said, “... steps of the Queen of Heaven passed through it!”. In addition to the spiritual rules, the designer must also abide by several other important and earthly rules.
Principles to Guide Greening the Temple Grounds
— Proportionality of trees and temple
When selecting trees and shrubs for landscaping the temple area, it is necessary to take into account the habitus of each specific species/variety and their proportionality with the spatial proportions of the temple and other buildings.
— Compliance of the main breed and variety composition with local traditions
When compiling a macro-landscape at the temple, it is necessary to use coniferous, fruit trees and shrubs traditional for each specific area for planting. Exotics, as a base, will look like at least ridiculous strangers who appeared from nowhere. Foreign novelties, albeit regionalized ones, will not find a response in the soul of the parishioners, for whom everything on the territory near the temple is native, understandable and is not associated with beautiful, but alien landscapes. For example, poplar or, familiar to everyone from grandfather-great-grandfather, white birch will be much nicer than cypress or western thuja.
—Planting fruit trees of breeds, variety forms and species familiar to a particular area
For planting on the territory near the temple, it is necessary to use fruit trees that grow in this locality. In this case, the landscape of the temple area will be in harmony with the landscape of the area as a whole, and visitors will not have the feeling that they are visiting a botanical garden.
— Selection as "sacred" trees of zoned, resistant and plastic species
There is no need to torture a plant with the status of "sacred" if it cannot grow in the proposed conditions due to its biological characteristics. It is better to find a worthy replacement for him. An acclimatized seedling is reliable and frost-resistant; it will not lose its aesthetic merits over the years. For example, in the image of the "sacred olive" in central Russia, one of the varieties of willow of the Sverdlovsk selection will perform better than the narrow-leaved sucker.
- limited symbolism
This principle implies the limited use of molding and the rejection of the arrangement of sheared plant labyrinths in the garden of an Orthodox church. This rule is applied both in the preparation of flower beds, and in the formation of an assortment of shrubs and trees. The restriction is especially relevant if the composition includes plants that accompany canonical installations in the temple grounds or plants that are “biblical” symbols. The principle also involves the use of the optimal number of symbolic plants. One or two types of rocks are enough to create a composition.
— Practical decorative effect
When choosing exotic fruit species for compositions, it is necessary to pay attention not only to their originality, crown size stability, flowering splendor, but also to the abundance of fruiting, as well as to the organoleptic qualities of the fruit.
— Botanical and medicinal value of plants
The concept of "botanical value" involves the cultivation, study and collection of rare plants, including plants that have medicinal properties. The latter, along with popular, well-known plants, can grow on a special one. Its device must be taken into account when designing the landscape design of the temple. The size depends on the expected number of medicinal plants. Lily of the valley, valerian, celandine and mint need a small area. If, along with the listed plants, chamomile, saffron, basil, lavender, cilantro, motherwort, initial letter, St. John's wort, coriander, sage, marjoram are also grown, a significant area is needed.
— Demonstration and harmony
These concepts include such perennials and shrubs that will provide a demonstration effect. With the help of "correct" plants, compositions are created that emphasize the architecture of the temple and correspond to its style. Such rules are also observed when choosing materials and small architectural forms for the garden. For example, the area around the old sandstone temple, which has survived more than one century, is best designed in the style of natural gardens. Various garden structures made of wood and stone (at least the same sandstone), simple discreet flowers,
If you ask an Orthodox person: “Why do you gild crosses and domes on your Temples?”, He will probably answer that this is the house of God and that is why we are trying to make His house better than ours. And if you look at what plants and how we plant near these Temples? There are several approaches to the choice of plants with which we cannot agree.
It happens that parishioners bring overgrown weeds and garden plants. They fill everything quickly and do not have good decorative qualities. Plants such as borage, Jerusalem artichoke, red quinoa, terribly aggressive red oxalis, and the like, often crowd behind the Temple in abundance, competing with burdocks and nettles, and are not an ornament, but a problem for the parish.
Even one beautiful, beloved, perhaps even very rare, but small violet will not decorate the territory near the Temple. Most likely, it will be overgrown with grass or trampled down by parishioners, since near the Temple, plants are needed that are noticeable, untrampled, resistant to wintering, and to some extent monotonous.
Let's explain everything in order.
Near the Temple there is always a place for terry varietal lilac, mock orange (jasmine), tree hydrangea (an excellent variety "Annabel" blooms profusely with huge white caps from mid-summer to autumn), paniculate hydrangea (the best variety "Grandiflora", with an elongated snow-white brush, which begins to turn pink with the onset of cold weather (the photo is in our catalog). If the site is not gassed, there will always be a place for prickly spruce “Christmas”, juniper blue columnar “Skyrocket”, golden horizontal lush “Old Gold”, mountain pines large and medium, Korean fir or Nordmann fir, and for coniferous compositions on the lawn, creeping not large junipers ("Blue Carpet" and the like), as well as "Conica" firs.
By "untrampled" we mean bulbous and rhizomatous flowers, such as lilies, daffodils, hostas and daylilies, which will recover even if they appear to be "killed" outwardly. Many small-bulb flowers can be planted not only in low flower borders, but even in the lawn. Wonderful plants such as Lucily's Blue Chionodox(1) and Pushkinia will bloom for 10 to 20 days and will flower just in time for lawn mowing. Well, the beautiful clipped hedges of the purple-leaved Thunberg barberry (2) will protect the lawns from trampling. Shrub blooms in clusters yellow flowers, and in autumn it is strewn with red berries and the color of the leaves changes from burgundy to bright scarlet. Requires a haircut 2 times a year and be sure to water the first year!
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Plants that are resistant to wintering: unfortunately, almost half of the plants offered in our supermarkets do not winter at all in our climate (we are talking about the Karelian Isthmus). It makes no sense to plant budleys, many varieties of rhododendrons, especially beautiful terry heathers, hebes, and it is better to replace common hybrid tea roses with ground cover, park or polyanthus.
Each Temple has its own unique style, and it is the parishioners of this Temple who will have to look for it! However, there are some more tips from a practical agronomist that you don’t have to agree with. So, for example, large bushes of roses, peonies, jasmines and the like can be planted near a large stone Temple. White and silver plants will look good against red brick walls, and red and burgundy against white walls. Huge stone vases, massive benches and wide stone borders will look ridiculous near a small rural Temple, but daisies, violas, petunias and lobelias near a low wattle fence will be very useful (3) .
Now about the "uniformity" of plants, which was mentioned above.
This problem is often faced by a wealthy florist: he bought a lot of expensive things, planted them in one flower bed without an idea ... “Why didn’t it become beautiful?”. And in the eyes ripples, and a complete sense of disorder. Such gardeners will transplant everything from place to place, again not that ... And the problem is precisely in excessive heterogeneity, because the eye always understands harmony both in color and in shape.
Take, for example, a very simple option: a flower bed of red and burgundy petunias, bordered by a silvery cineraria (4). Strictly, smartly and not loudly. Or, for example, a wave of unpretentious hostas, behind which “bouquets” are planted with lilies and daylilies, and in front of the hosta is a padding of “everlasting” annuals (lobelia, alyssum, ageratum). Unpretentious perennials will delight you for many years to give you the opportunity to plant plants from them in other places. And annuals will add variety to the permanent landscape, since they can be replaced annually by others, according to variety and color (5) .
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If your ward doesn't have a landscaping and ornamental specialist, you can start by landscaping your lawn. This is a painstaking and costly business, but if you at least level the ground near the Temple (you don’t need to make it even, like a table, the hills also have their own charm, but at least level the ruts and potholes, add good earth and work on the simplest cheap lawn) . Already this will be enough to transform the entire territory! Later, you can break flower narrow borders along the paths and plant several accent conifers and shrubs
Green hedges are designed to dampen noise, reduce gas pollution and decorate the site due to the various colors of shrub leaves (6).
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Shrubs are planted along the hedge, first those that are higher: variegated turf, jasmine (mock orange), lilac, etc. and in front of them are medium and undersized: spireas, barberries, etc. and the very last (closest to people), perennial flowers are possible at the edge of the lawn: hostas, irises, etc.
Design in the form of a cross from clipped bushes.
Types of crosses:
1. Greek. 2. Latin. 3. Burgundy. 4. Patriarchal. 5. Lorraine. 6. Papal. 7. Orthodox. 8. Egyptian. 8a. Lithuanian. 9. Andreevsky. 10. Forked (biblical). 11. Antonievsky four-part. 12. Jerusalem. 13. Romanian. 14. Pisan. 15. Maltese. 16. Austrian army (cannon). 17. Maria Theresa. 18. Leopolda. 19, Rupert. 20. Arrow-shaped (Bohemian or Czech). 21. Lily. 22. Clover. 23. Anchor. 23a. Armenian. 23b. Armenian split. 24. Helvetic. 25. Celtic (England, Scotland, Ireland). 26. Sunny (wheel-shaped) or Nordic (Norway). 
Coniferous plants. I must say right away that a good Christmas spruce will never grow on a gassed area. But if you really want to have it, then plant not an ordinary forest spruce with a thin flat foot, but a prickly spruce (blue shape), just choose the color as green and natural as possible. The paw of such a spruce is voluminous, thick, wide, and with proper formation, the spruce is very thick and beautiful, but you will have to regularly water it in the heat, spray it against diseases and growth stimulants. Under these conditions, something may come out, but most likely the spruce will be stunted, sick, with yellow needles, or even die ...
What kind of coniferous can be planted? Firstly, mountain pines (7): they come in different heights (from mini to 3-5m) and endure urban conditions. Secondly, thuja, also different types growths and colors, only it must be taken into account that the thuja should be wrapped with a covering white cloth for the winter - spunbond, so that they do not turn brown and dry out in early spring. This can be omitted only if you plant thuja in the shade (under the shelter of a wall or trees).
A few words about additional decorations.
Usually, rural temples are decorated with hanging plastic planters and large ground pots or boxes with ampelous petunias (8) .
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Yet good decoration can be considered a body of water. Now there is a large selection of all kinds of "eternal waterfalls" and decorative lights for the evening.
And here is the unusual design of the reservoir in the form of a cross (10). Probably, he would be in a place on the street "behind the altar"? And "pseudo-spilled water" from viols.
(These are rough ideas for further thought.)
It seems that the "island" is floating, but just during construction, the reservoir went around the pine tree. So that she has no problems with growth, and the roots go to a natural depth.
The only advice: do not plant deciduous plants that will clog the reservoir and the water in it will become swampy and go out. Can I suggest creating a small flower garden of scarlet salvia there, the only "obstacle" is how to water and weed? But if the sizes are small, then it is not difficult.
You can think of an arch at the entrance to the territory. Or there will grow two clematis bushes (11), planted on both sides and possibly contrasting in color, or even oaks (12), grown and intertwined with each other. But we have no personal experience with such trees. Perhaps all the difficulties will be limited to a regular haircut.
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Roses. And although they grow well and even look good, they are not huge and lush, as in Dutch advertising. For a low beautiful border we use Patio roses. And if you want a few accents, then you can plant a few bushes of climbing roses (13). The problem will be only with shelter. In the conditions of the city and winter without snow, a decent amount of spruce branches and shield shelters will be required.
Decorative grapes can be allowed to grow along the walls of buildings. We don’t know how the Temple is, but it decorates castles and palaces remarkably, and according to research, it does not harm the walls, and even protects them to some extent from the effects of winds and the sun. Western and eastern walls are preferred for grapes. Southern - categorically not, for many reasons. Northern ones are good for a C grade. There, in the absence of the sun, the grapes will not become red-leaved in autumn.
The next photo is to reflect on the rest near the Temple. The services are long, someone is tired, someone went out to catch his breath, someone brought the children out. Where to sit and relax (14) ? Where to go to the toilet? What to do with children so that they do not pick flowers from the flower bed?
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Some rural Temples welcome children, arrange either small children's corners or educational "moments", for example, they build nativity scenes (15) . And although it's not in Orthodox tradition, but with what interest, and for how long, the kids sit next to small figurines of people and animals! How many questions are asked!
We hope you are not tired of our little "journey"? This is our first trial run. A little later we will update the tips and add new photos. In winter, we will answer questions from parishioners if you provide photos of problem areas.
We beg your pardon, but we offer assistance only to Orthodox Churches, and we do not plant gardens and we cannot physically answer all your numerous questions.
Nursery team
You always have to start somewhere... I decided to open my photography and gardening blog with some significant and interesting topic. That's why I chose this particular one, which binds together faith, gardens and ... photography.
From time immemorial, churches and monasteries have been famous for their gardens. In the Middle Ages, during the time of enslavement of the body and spirit, it was in such places that gardens were preserved - the prototypes of paradise on Earth. It was from this source that European ornamental horticulture and gardening art subsequently revived.
The creation and maintenance of church gardens in our time can be identified as one of the areas of landscape design. Therefore, it is always interesting to turn to the origins and see what modern church and monastery gardens are like.
Holy gates and bell tower of Danilov Monastery
In the background is the Temple of the Seven Ecumenical Councils
In 1330, the first archimandrite in the Moscow Principality was established in the Danilov Monastery, which was then transferred to the Kremlin Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. Before his death, Prince Daniel took the vows as a monk (1303), he was buried in the Danilov Monastery. His relics were found in 1652 and transferred, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, to the temple of the Seven Ecumenical Councils in the monastery he founded.
In 1983, the monastery was revived as a stauropegic one, since that time it has become the spiritual and administrative center of the Russian Orthodox Church: on its territory there is a building of the Department for External Church Relations, as well as the residence of the patriarch, where meetings of the Holy Synod are held. Looking ahead, I note that it was difficult to photograph the impressive alleys of lindens and thujas of the western “Smaragd”, leading to the residence, because of the constantly scurrying Cossacks and numerous executive limousines lined up in rows.
Trinity Cathedral with a hexagonal flower bed
Front garden in front of auxiliary building
Having descended from its steps, I did not have time to uncover my camera, when a brisk gray-haired Cossack immediately ran up to me and, starting up, announced that he forbade me to take photos and videos. After he left, I looked around and saw several parishioners boldly clicking right and left with compact cameras. Judging that, in all likelihood, the Cossack woman was confused by the size of my camera, coupled with the lens, I nevertheless decided, without attracting much attention, to take a few pictures.
And for myself, I reasoned that since I am not going to derive any material benefit from the pictures taken, but on the contrary, I plan to attract additional people's attention to the monastery, then this is a charitable thing and I have the right to take some pictures. This is how these pictures appeared, presented, dear reader, to your attention.
White willow, weeping form near the monastery wall, a reduced copy of the Kremlin
And here are the roses
View of the residence of the Holy Synod and the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
Monument to Prince Vladimir against the backdrop of the building of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate
plant care
One of the many churches on the territory of the monastery is surrounded by greenery
25.02.12 L.S. Mikhalchik, Ph.D. Sciences, landscape designer Source: published with the consent of the author
LANDSCAPE OF THE TERRITORIES OF CHRISTIAN TEMPLE AND MONASTERY GARDENS -
DESIGN PRODUCT OR PROJECTION OF ORTHODOX MENTALITY?
The architectural image of the temple in the minds of the majority modern people is built on the basis of deep associations with folk cultural and historical images. So, due to the heavy proportions of the building and domes, the appearance of many Pskov, Novgorod churches is associated precisely with the epic hero in armor, rooted to the waist in the ground. The graceful proportions of the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl (near Vladimir), on the contrary, are akin to the image of a slender young warrior guarding the Russian plains. The local landscape only enhances it: the temple is located on a water meadow at the mouth of two winding rivers, next to a lake with natural curtains of Siberian iris and egg capsules. But will the artificial planting of flowers and shrubs from the landscaping arsenal harmoniously complement the existing natural style of the temple grounds?
The question has arisen to what extent, when carrying out landscape work around Christian churches, it is necessary to rely on their architectural image. It should also be determined which Christian symbols, design means and landscaping techniques, it is possible to express the Orthodox worldview in the garden at the temple, while maintaining a balance in the landscape between historicity and splendor of design, the needs of museum and tourism and secular society. What materials and plants will help make the territory of the temple unique and attractive to the public, but at the same time convenient for parishioners.
First, let's try to figure out what the Christian symbolism of the outdoor landscape is expressed for the Russian believer, what is its role in the gardens Catholic monasteries and temples. For Catholics, plants are part of the decoration of the territory, and the compositions are linked to the architecture of the cathedrals. On the territory of the main religious centers such as the Vatican, the landscape carries an ideological load, and its plant symbol often turns out to be the dominant temple complex, as, for example, the giant cone sculpture in the courtyard of Pinia's cone in the Vatican.
The architecture of the churches of Catholic Europe in the 11th-12th centuries. was formed primarily under the influence of the Romanesque style. To understand the essence of the differences between Orthodox church building and Western European, it will be useful to touch on the Catholic architecture of the fortress type.It is important to note that the appearance of most European churches in Romanesque style It is distinguished by massiveness, simple geometry (cylinder, cone, parallelepiped, pyramid), consonant with the worldview of people who are looking for spiritual support in the temple, who are aware of all the hostility and inconsistency of the world behind the high fortress walls surrounding the temples.
The temple complexes inside the cities (built mainly of sandstone) also looked like buildings alien to the natural environment. The great crampedness of medieval cities required conciseness in the improvement and economy of the internal space of church yards.
Compared to the spacious natural garden-groves of antiquity, the monastic plantations of the Catholics were gardens of limited spaces. In terms of vegetation composition, they were much inferior even to gardens. ancient rome. The ruling secular elite owned an overwhelming amount of land, and the Catholic orders were severely disadvantaged in the ownership of plots. Many orders (for example, the Franciscans) until 1237 were allowed to own only plots inside the monasteries, using them only as a decorative paradise courtyard. However, gardens were cultivated even by mendicant Catholic orders. This is how the symmetrical, geometrically correct system of garden layout, the canons of plant placement, later adopted by the secular gardens of the Dutch and French nobles, were established.
Medicinal plants and spicy-aromatic species (mint, sage, rue), including profusely flowering shrubs (hawthorn, jasmine), were primarily preferred in the monastery gardens. Of the perennials, lilies and gladioli were traditional. Vegetables were placed in traditionally rectangular ridges, but beautifully arranged next to the apothecary's garden. The cult of the Virgin Mary was expressed in the form of white rose bushes. In the architecture of temples, the cult of the rose was also fixed - in the round windows (rosettes) of Gothic cathedrals, usually located above the main entrance - the transept.
In the conditions of a dissected relief, in the presence of large level differences (typical for the monasteries of Italy, Papal residences), strict geometry was realized at each individual level of the garden, compositionally connecting three different gardens. Such, for example, are the Apostolic Garden with the courtyard of St. Damasus, the courtyards of the Belvedere Palace in the Vatican, the villa of Pope Pius IV in the gardens of the Vatican. The Belvedere courtyard has the shape of a rectangle; two small rectangles of the Library Court adjoin it, connecting with the garden itself. Since 1513, Pinia's garden has been strictly symmetrical, divided by cross-shaped intersections of paths into 20 parterre sectors and has three round formations in the middle of the garden, at three main intersections. In later planimetry, the parterre part of the Pinia garden acquires the most complete symmetry, in which 4 viewpoints (round flower beds) are located at the ends of the cross, the fifth, square - in its center.
Fountains-wells were built from engineering objects of improvement in small gardens of Catholics, (less often - fountains in their direct entertainment purpose), framed by orange trees, less often - apple trees with paradise apples and one (usually square or round) reservoir. Wealthy monasteries arranged their own plumbing.
The round reservoir in the courtyards of Catholic churches symbolizes the Immaculate Conception even today. Monastery wells of an open type are symbols of the sacrificial life of Christ. They are also usually round in shape (sometimes with a water-lifting mechanism). Garden sculptures in the monastery garden were not used before, but a sundial was often arranged. The favorable climate of Europe made it possible to widely use wall planting, improve vertical gardening, smoothing out the relatively gloomy architectural appearance of the stone walls of religious buildings. For both Catholics and Orthodox Christians, the grapes in the garden embodied the image of the suffering Christ. Also, stone crosses installed in an open place were dedicated to Christ (for Catholics, this was usually a cross with two small crosshairs above the main crossbar, symbolizing the power of the Pope). Orthodox gardeners have always decorated the church cross-stone with shrub leaves and fresh flowers, realizing the symbol life-giving cross(sometimes the Tree of Life).
So, Catholic monastery gardens are mainly characterized by small size, rectangular shape, leveled relief with stepped transitions to different levels of the garden. characteristic feature gardens had a small number of plant species and water devices. Compositionally, the garden has always been associated with the surrounding monastic buildings and walls.
The principles of planning inside the monasteries of the architecture of the Romanesque period are expressed very clearly. The church is the main monastery building. The main entrance through the portal was balanced by the exit from the church to the rear (inner) courtyard. The space of the courtyard was formed by open colonnades, which provided coolness and shade (relevant for the hot climate of Italy and Spain). In France, the courtyard was called the cloister (cloitre), in England - the cloister (cloister), which is essentially the same thing, in Germany - Kreuzgang (in the semantic sense - the cross passage). The house of the prior of the monastery (abbot) was nearby. Next to the church were bedrooms for monks, a refectory, a kitchen, a winery, a brewery, a bakery, warehouses, barns, housing for workers, a doctor's house, a kitchen for pilgrims, a school, a hospital and a number of additional reserve living quarters.
The nearby monastic space of landscape between the church and the outside world closed in on the cemetery. Decorative vegetation inside such a paved courtyard required careful study in terms of form and symbolic content. Sheared shrubs and trees in tubs and pots were popular. Two-stemmed plants growing woven together looked symbolic (symbolic dualism of life, memory of the resurrection of Christ crucified on a wooden cross). In general, most of the plant compositions and the landscape layout of the classical monastery courtyard can be attributed to the static equilibrium type.So the landscape catholic church(monastery) is not always a continuation of its architectural appearance. Let us recall the harsh walls and towers of the monasteries of Europe of the Romanesque era. Despite this, the exterior decoration of the portals, the walls above the aisles, and the built-in bas-reliefs bring the spirit of symbolism to the Catholic monastery garden. In the medieval Gothic of places of worship, symbolism enhances its role - both in the exterior decoration and in the arrangement of the yard and garden. The language of symbols, the play of form, he expresses the strength of religious dogmas, the strength of the Catholic brotherhood. The "Catholic" landscape demonstrates the possibility of rapprochement with God through the taming of nature (bringing cropped forms, flower beds, labyrinths, etc. to perfection), as a reward for humility and victory over base human passions. So the Catholic mentality is manifested in the creation of a garden image of paradise at the temple, and the society is shown the harmony and fullness of the meaning of monastic life.
Landscape and architectural image Orthodox cathedrals and monasteries was formed on the basis of the fact that the vast majority of them were not fenced off from the natural landscape, did not suffer from European gigantism in size, but, on the contrary, merged with the area, even within the city limits. Often they were built taking into account the opening view of the big water or the expanses of Russian nature. The proximity of the water element, the orientation of the temples to the river, the lake are a typical Russian feature of the landscape near the temple, monastery.
Gardens in Orthodox monasteries differed significantly from Western European and layout, and meaning . First of all, they were larger. The Church actually owned large plots of land, engaging in real commercial agriculture (horticulture and horticulture). At the same time, part of the utilitarian plantings always remained within the monastery walls, as the monks feared the loss of part of the land as a result of political instability, state decrees on secularization, etc.
Should highlight three characteristic types of gardens at cult facilities Orthodox Russia– garden utilitarian, decorative and sacred grove. In various combinations, these gardens were present in monasteries and temples.
But, unlike the monastery gardens Western Europe, in the gardens Orthodox churches completely different plants-symbols were used and there were not many of them at all. This is a semi-apple tree, a large-fruited wild game or a folk variety with beautiful fruits, cherries and gooseberries (kruzhavnik). The hawthorn was not considered a symbol of the suffering of Christ, but rather belonged to the shrubs of the natural environment. In a sense, the thorn groves (the source of rootstocks for the monks' horticultural practice) personified Christ's suffering. In the image of a paradise-tree, in the Orthodox sense, a modest plant from the natural environment willow-sedge, in fact, a willow with a fragrant bark, is a kind of broom, willow, (such as the Altai sedge, in another way - husk, fragrant poplar). A similar species of willow (willow) appears in most church ceremonies with a living tree (both in the temple and on the street). Most shrubs with fragrant flowers of natural origin (viburnum, wild rose) have always been perceived not as plants-symbols of beauty, but as sources of fruit useful in the garden or rocker plantings. The cultivated rose, a symbol of the Virgin Mary among Catholics, was brought to Russia only in the era of Peter I, was never a symbol of the Mother of God and began to be grown in monastery gardens only from the end of the 18th century, at a time of active secularization of the church.
The true symbol of the Virgin in the Russian Orthodox garden there has always been a lily (according to the church - krin). Planted at a water source (crown), it was the main element of the flower arrangement. Where the climate allowed (in the southern zone - in Kyiv, Chernigov, Kozelsk), grapes were planted at the temples - biblical symbol sacred tree. In principle, hanging lianas, climbing plants in the monastery gardens of North-Eastern Russia were rare, but were used in the South (Novoafonsky, Hilendarsky monasteries). Of the abundantly flowering species in the landscape of churches, mountain ash, hazel, bird cherry were used. Local species (elms, oaks, lindens, birches) have always been shaping for man-made landscapes at temples.
In Russian monasteries, nature itself was deified, and not the garden, a product of human activity. Human life and her needs were seen as sinful and unworthy of holiness. Gardens on the new plowed lands were arranged mainly for their utilitarian use. They were not symbols of the heavenly paradise or the earthly paradise - Eden. Paradise is the surrounding nature, not changed by a sinful person. Therefore, the saint and the righteous must live in the midst of a righteous nature.
Academician D.S. Likhachev noted that the idea of an intra-monastic garden, revived in the 16th century. with the development of large monasteries, it did not rely on religious symbols established in Europe. There were no indications at all that the intra-monastic gardens of large cenobitic monasteries (Trinity-Sergius, Kirillo-Belozersky, Solovetsky, Tolga and many others) were understood in a symbolic system similar to the symbolic system of medieval monastic gardens in the West.With the advance of the monasteries to the North arose type of orthodox apple orchard completely man-made, created on stone islands (practically on bulk soil on top of rock), the so-called "botanical garden of the Russian North". Unlike the nature of the Solovetsky archipelago, favorable for gardening, Valaam was by no means a paradise for trees. In this type of monastery garden on the islands with a particularly harsh climate (in the South-West of Karelia), the talent for transforming nature and the agrotechnical creativity of the monks were especially clearly revealed. Monk Poisiy bred 21 varieties of apple trees by grafting. Some of them lived 100-160 years. The garden of 400 apple trees, which yielded more than 230 centners of apples a year, became an example of the monks' righteous work and ability to understand nature.
Another peculiar landscape is ascetic church gardens characteristic of the wooden temple complexes of Northern Russia. One or two apple trees, growing and pleasing with a harvest despite the unfavorable climate for fruiting (on the border of the Kizhi complex) are another, special type of garden at an Orthodox church.
The interest of Orthodox gardeners in introduced plants and the enthusiasm for acclimatization of the rich natural flora of Russia on the lands of monasteries caused the appearance in the gardens of monasteries and churches in central Russia of species of Far Eastern origin (Amur velvet, Amur lilac, Manchurian walnut).
In the Petrine era, all the signs of secularization (secularization) of the landscape appeared in the monastery gardens: bridges, grottoes, mills, paving paths. Landmark on Europe through the efforts of Peter and his associates determined the regular style of planning the main monasteries of St. Petersburg, mainly with an eye on the Dutch gardens. By 1722, more than 20,000 maple seedlings, one-sided alleys of mountain ash, birch, and fruit bushes (currants, cherries) had been planted. Flower beds included tulips, carnations, violets, sage. The flower beds also housed strawberries, lettuce, marjoram. In fact, an ornamental garden and a vegetable garden were mixed.
Moreover, many vegetable gardens between church buildings and houses, areas adjacent to driveways were administratively replaced with flower beds and plantings of mountain ash and lilac. The boundary between the utilitarian and the decorative was blurred. The Church has never sought to implement some complete idea-scheme of the garden, to arrange it in the image of a man-made paradise. The reason, in our opinion, lies in the eschatological nature of the Orthodox attitude to the world: heaven on earth is impossible, there is only striving for it through suffering and longsuffering. Therefore, the ideal garden, which has been living in the minds of a Catholic, a person of Western mentality since the Middle Ages, should not be reproduced in a Russian monastery, since it does not make sense. Orthodox person lives by movement towards the highest ideal and sees it only in afterlife. The highest value of a true believer is the renunciation of worldly goods for the sake of justice, selflessness and compassion for one's neighbor, faith in finding paradise only after death. Such extreme eschatology of Orthodox thinking partially explains, in my opinion, the specifics of the Orthodox landscape.
It is significant that despite the secularization of the Church in late XIX century, despite the appearance of elements of regular decoration of the territories of monasteries, the modesty and simplicity of landscape decoration were preserved in most bishops' courts. Trees and shrubs were trimmed, more and more often fences were installed in the monasteries, simple wooden fences that organized movement around the territory. In the Tolgsky Monastery, which is more “advanced” in terms of “design for show”, a three-tiered hedge of shrubs and trees is cut, alleys are arranged to view pavilions, and the care of the trees of the ancient cedar grove is preserved. All this develops the use of garden symbols on the monastery land, rather for political reasons. Emperor Nicholas II liked to visit here with his family, on arrival he always approached the ancient cedars of the monastery. The style was dictated by the fashion of that time and by the fact that the monastic authorities did their best to please (including regular landscape) tastes royal family who often visited them and made large contributions.
The monastic gardens of the late 19th century varied greatly in wealth and, depending on their political significance, were landscaped differently. Orientation towards English landscape gardens-parks with their characteristic comfort and habitable nature of the landscape, in fact, contradicted the religious spirit of the people, expressed the separation of the tastes of the ruling elite from the people's cultural values.
Wide straight paved alleys were laid from the monastery cells to the main temple, so that at the end of the 19th century the landscape, for example, of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, acquired park-romantic features. In modern landscape works on the territory of small courtyards at temples, composition-installations with elements of symbolism are increasingly being implemented. Their use is appropriate if parishioners want to keep this symbol-plot in the courtyard of their temple for a long period. A frequent change of theme is not desirable, as it contradicts the Orthodox attitudes of denying sculpture and theatricality in the garden.
Over the past two centuries, the principles of baroque gardens have been rethought in their own way by Russian monastic gardeners. Thus, the complex drawing of parterres arranged on the territory of the Smolny Monastery in St. Petersburg from the side of the Neva River, despite its deliberate symmetry, became more complicated as it moved away from the central alley, such a technique gave the monastery territory an element of dynamics, so characteristic of all Russian landscape architecture.
So, it is important to remember that when creating monastery gardens, the designer should not be tempted to go into a design game with form and color, small architectural forms, so as not to be captured by European design, secular (in the terminology of believers - pagan or Hellenistic) landscape ideology. The main criterion for the purity of the Orthodox image of the garden is the penetration of the master into the messianic type of consciousness of an Orthodox person.
Leonid Mikhalchik
candidate of agricultural sciences, landscape designer
