Medieval garden

Located opposite the cemetery, on the Véloroute du Vignoble cycle route, this garden can be visited free of charge during the tourist season.

The medieval garden in Kintzheim is one of 11 medieval gardens on the Circuit des 10 Communes Touristiques du Haut-Koenigsbourg.

This apothecary's garden, called ‘HORTUS HYPOCRAS’, is made up of a mixture of shrubs and plants used in part for therapeutic purposes.

The apothecary is a reminder of a past of sophisticated pharmacopoeias used to greater or lesser effect depending on the people who distilled them and their botanical knowledge.

The monasteries were the most reliable, as the monks had acquired useful knowledge of botanical science.

The medieval garden came into being with the expansion of monasteries in the 7th and 8th centuries. As a general rule, four squares (or four crosses) divided the food:

-The first was used to grow vegetables for soups (cabbage, etc.);
-The second contained aromatic plants;
-The third was for root vegetables (carrots, etc.);
-The fourth honoured fruit plants.

The spirit of the Hortus Hypocras de Kintzheim is indicated by two tables with explicit texts.

 
(source Wikipedia)