They are places of beauty, relaxation, silent witnesses to bygone eras – and increasingly spaces of change: today more than ever, historic gardens are caught between the poles of preservation and adaptation. In this issue, we devote ourselves entirely to green cultural assets and the questions that determine their continued existence. How can the authenticity of listed gardens be preserved when climate, water availability and vegetation cycles change fundamentally? What role do restorers play in the conservation of listed gardens – and how far can intervention go in order to preserve the substance and still create living landscapes? Discover the diversity of historical garden art – and what is needed to preserve it for future generations.
Cover photo: © NTUC
Romantic urge
Yes, it’s green – but not everything that grows thrives in a manner befitting a listed building. In this issue of Restauro, we enter the world of historic gardens, those often underestimated cultural monuments that need to be cared for with secateurs but understood with historical sensitivity. Whether monastery flowerbed or castle park – gardens are designed nature, tamed wilderness, symbol and system at the same time. They tell of monastic medicine and courtly representation, of the idea of divine order in the Baroque period and the Romantic urge for natural freedom in English landscape design. But what to do when avenues are ageing, the parterre is overgrown or the original planting scheme has long since gone wild?
Natural visual axes
This time, our journey takes us to places where history survives not only in stone, but also in shrubs and perennials: from the newly developed structures of the monastery gardens of St. Gallen and Corvey to the Italian splendor of the Boboli Gardens and Portuguese groves where tradition and innovation flourish. Even England’s garden art is not to be missed – with its ingeniously staged “natural” visual axes that leave nothing to chance.
Good things take time
How can such gardens be preserved without degrading them to mere scenery? Restorers, garden historians and monument conservators discuss this with expertise – and sometimes with the patience of a gardener who knows that good care takes time.
Scent of summer
Because one thing is clear: historic gardens are not rigid fossils, but living cultural assets. Anyone who restores them is working with nature – and against its oblivion. And sometimes a quiet walk through a lavender labyrinth is enough to understand how much history lies in the scent of summer.
All of us on the Restauro editorial team look forward to your feedback on this and all other issues.
Sincerely, Tobias Hager & Team
t.hager@georg-media.de
instagram: @restauro_magazine
The magazine is available here in the store.
Our last issue was all about materiality. Read more about it here.