Augustan Garden

The Augustan Garden was developed as a style in the 18th century that wanted to revisit and adhere elements of the past, of the Roman style garden and yet still allude to the English garden.  This was the era of the birth of Freemasonry and the Romantic poets, and an atmosphere that desired to achieve a type of literary and artistic beauty.  Sculpture and adornments were especially helpful in pointing out and connecting the visions of the designer with the key elements of the past. This century saw a collective response to industrialism from the "artistic" front and many were trying to recapture the ideals of the Medeival period.  Much like Marx saw about the negative consequences that capitalism could bring, perhaps few of these Romantics and anti-industrialists also saw a dark cloud above the skies of the new industry, that wasn't only pollution from the factories.

Strawberry Hill (Gothic revival) : the ideals of Romanticism

Castle Howard, in Yorkshire, England embodies the Augustan concept and is a perfect example of what it incorporates in it's style.  It was designed to run on a north/south axis, it included two different architectural orders in front; Doric and Corinthian, which were different types of Greek architectural orders, mostly adorning columns.  The Doric order is mainly comprised of triglyphs and metopes, and is featured here in the Parthenon column, however, it has an intricate horse feature where the plain Doric type would be a blank slate between the triglyphs. 

 The Corinthian style is more ornate, utilizing fluted columns and acanthus leaves.

Although the main Castle is Baroque, it has a nineteenth-century garden, designed by an amateur and tries to reflect the Roman period about.  It also has naturalism and dark theatrical suggestions.  It is no coincidence that Augustus was the purveyor for connecting the past with the present, as Augustan Rome was utilized and laid out in this manner. He was friends with Gaius Matius, the inventor of topiary.  Trees, he felt were the indisputable link to the past, as well as providing the lifeblood for the future, and were considered most sacred.



Once again, Baroque meets Naturalism in the Russian palace and park of Pavlovsk, a great estate on 307 hectacres of land near St. Petersburg given to Tsar Pavel, by his mother; Catherine the Great.  The palace is designed in the St. Petersburg neo-classicist style, but the two architects who worked on it had differing views; Cameron loved the understated Palladianism and Brenna probably loved not being on the Tsar's bad side by altering the work of Cameron.  The gardens are designed also, by Capability Brown and include naturalism as well as the theatrical baroque infused vistas.  The private gardens only for the family, were more formalized and bedded down.

Pavlovsk Park

Pavlosk Palace

 Rousham gardens, near Oxford in England was built in the early eighteenth century by William Kent, a reknowned British architect, landscape architect, and furniture designer, who did most of his studying in Italy.  They also have the characteristics of Naturalism and added folly to accentuate the Roman period in many of the different garden rooms.
It is worth noting that all of these temples, obelisks, and other statuesque gestures, whether they are pyramids or mauseoleums all have one thing in common, besides the Roman overtures; they are associated with Freemasonry. Whether or not all of the property owners or architects were freemasons; as it was new and popular at this time is not determined, however the fact that so many of these landscapes were tended to by people who believed in this society is a fact and so are the symbols they planted on the land.

Rousham Palace

Freemasonry gone wild.

Other Augustan Landscapes

Woerlitzer Park, Germany


                     

Park an der Ilm, Germany

The Cloister Garden type

                                                            The Cloister Garden

The Cloister garden was a form of garden style developed mainly in monasteries around the world, but most likely originated in roman peristyle courtyards.  The word cloister, which is Latin for enclosure means  "a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth."

They were intended to be utilized not only for growing food or medicinal herbs, but also as a contemplative type garden, that became assimilated mostly with monasteries and other medieval buildings, such as the one shown here at Mont St Michel in France; a fortress built in the eight century; some say by a request from Michael, the archangel. It sits on the coast where Normandy and Brittany converge and is assaulted by the highest and fastest tides in the world, sometimes known to swell to 45 feet during high tides.

  

Another example of a monastic cloister garden is a monastery in Meteora, Greece, of which there are only 13 remaining.  The Meteora Complex consists of six monasteries situated on sandstone cliffs, high above the central Greece plains.  This location offered a safe refuge for the Hermetic Monks, as many invaders, such as the Turks in the 18th century, sought to dissolve the Byzantine Empire. Legend has it, that Athanasaios, (the founder of the first monastery) was carried up by an eagle.  Today there are bridges and ladders were used at some point during history to scale the 1.027 feet.  The monasteries suffered damage during World War II, but is now a protected UNESCO heritage site.

Across the globe, in the Netherlands, the Cathedral of St. Martin in Utrecht, is one of the earliest examples of a cloister garden as the foundation of the cathedral was built in 47 A.D.  Originally comprised of wood and earth, it was an early Roman fortress to defend their empire.  This cathedral was burned down many times, then made up of tuffstone, and finally evolved into a Gothic cathedral; influenced by the Cathedral of Cologne.  Part of the cathedral, most especially the Nave, (which was never supported or finished properly in the 16th century) was destroyed by a tornado.  It had been made of wood, not brick, and did not have any buttresses, as financing had collapsed at this point. It has been both a Protestant and Catholic home, and now is mainly a tourist site, with a Domplain utilized where the nave used to be.

B.S.