by Dr. Valentin CHERNY, culturologist, Moscow Pedagogical State University

Paradise - this Greek rendering of the "garden" planted by God in Eden. What was the message carried by this word ("Rai" in Russian) to our distant forefathers? It is found in the Hebrew Old Testament in its primary meaning three times, and in addition it occurs in Genesis 2 and 3, denoting an enclosed park or pleasure-ground. What types of gardens were the most common on the territory of Rus, or Russia, in the past? The article which follows attempts to provide answers to these and other related questions.

The common attitude towards a garden in its sacral and also artistic meaning took shape in early Rus after its adoption of Christianity (988 A.D.). But, as a matter of fact, even before that natives used to associate certain trees and groups of trees with all sorts of cult or magic notions. In the pre-Christian centuries (and sometimes even later) pagans used to worship sacred grooves of trees planted by Mother Nature herself. And for a man of the Middle Ages the word "garden" stood for a coveted dream of Paradise and eternal life of bliss. The notion and image of Paradise has always been associated in the minds of the faithful with plenty of sweet fruits, the blissful fragrance of blossoming flowers and the harmony of singing birds. (In its origin, the word is probably of Persian origin - Zend, pairidaeza - and denotes an enclosed park or pleasure-ground).

And just as our body is the material dwelling of the soul, a park, or garden, must be fenced off from the sinful world (Russian "ogorod" literally means an enclosed plot of land). And in the Russian tradition in particular the image of a garden has always been associated with images of the Mother of God, a church and even of Man himself, as God's creature.

Traditional Russian horticulture knows many kinds of gardens or plantations. Urban villas and palaces of the

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gentry simply could not be imagined without some gardens in front or around the central mansion (usually called "krasny", meaning "red" which is the Russian synonym for "beautiful", e.g. "krasna" maiden). And spacious early Russian country gardens were sometimes called "rai" - literally paradise. For example, after the demise of the great Russian historical figure, Grand Prince Yuri Dolgorukii (literally -George of the Long Arm) in 1157 in Kiev, the infidels plundered his "red mansion" and his country estate beyond the Dnieper which was commonly called "rai".

Coming into vogue from the middle of the 12th century were "gardens with orchards" and "gardens with cabbages". But there were also what one could call "mixed" plantations with prevailing fruit trees, mainly apple-trees, with the ground in between planted with vegetables, sweet-smelling and medicinal herbs, and, climate permitting, - vines.

The "face" of a garden was also brightened up with ponds of fish and even menageries. The early Russian chronicle "Tale of the Bygone Years" (circa 1113) also mentions statues which were brought to Kiev by Grand Prince Vladimir at the end of the 10th century They were located in a yard behind the Desyatinnaya Church and the chronicle mentions "four copper horses (probably a chariot) and two unnamed statues. This fact attests to the links of Russian aristocratic parks and gardens with certain traditions of the antiquity.

Deserving of special mention, as a "class" in itself, were parish and monastery gardens. And while the former were of a relatively modest size and planted right near a church, the latter differed by their purpose, size and other characteristics. The main garden, the most picturesque one, with an intricate planning and special "menu" of grasses and trees, was located inside monastery grounds and close to the main cathedral. And there were also some small orchards in front of monastic cells. Other plantations, mostly of a "utilitarian" nature, were usually outside the monastery grounds, or along the edges.

The first big apple-tree garden was planted by an order of Hegumen Antoniy in the Kiev-Pechery Lavra (1051). And on the same spot a monk, nicknamed Svyatosha - former Prince Svyatoslav of Chernigov (1080-1142) - planted a garden in front of his monastic cell "with his own hands".

Rather common in Russia since early times were also hanging "visyachye" gardens (mentioned, for example in the "Izbomik" chronicle of Prince Svyatoslav, 1073). Such gardens belonged to the mansions of princes and wealthy gentry and they were usually located on the roofs of stone mansions, such as the ruins of the 10th-12th centuries discovered by archeologists in Kiev, Chernigov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Grodno, Peremyshi (now Polish Przemysl) and Zvenigorod (Yuzny, on what is now Ukrainian territory).

All types of plantations, needless to say, were chosen in harmony with the local architecture and the surrounding landscape. They served to "accentuate" the architecture of a cathedral, the outline of the central city hill, blending more and more with the surrounding terrain and woods.

In accordance with the rules of the day, trees could not obstruct the view from the mansion, the front gate and the panorama of the surrounding hills, lakes and pastures. The standard norm for a distance between the park and the next yard was no less than 12 "stops" (about 4 m) so as not to obstruct the general view.

While assimilating their own experience with the Byzantine traditions, early Russian gardeners elevated their skills to the level of an art. And then everything collapsed in the flames of the Tatar- Mongol conquest of Rus (1237-1240) and the more than two centuries of the Mongol "yoke", or domination (till 1480). The nomads plundered and reduced to ashes whole Russian towns, to say nothing of aristocratic estates. Thus the author of the chronicle called "Lay of the Destruction of the Russian Land" (between 1238-1246), while innumerating the main "points of beauty" for which Rus had been famed, mentions "great cities", "remarkable villages", "church buildings" and also church and monastery parks and gardens ("cloister vineyards").

The subsequent history of horticulture was reflected in the surviving documents of mainly the Moscow Region. From the 14th century local residents combined "farming" plots with plantations or parks intended as pleasure-grounds. These were mentioned, for example, in the testament of Metropolitan Alexiy (?-1378): he bequeathed his "low garden" (in the lower part of the Kremlin grounds) to the Chudov Monastery And there were also similar pleasure gardens outside of the Kremlin, such as the Posad district of merchants and artisans. At the start of 15th century the site was chosen for a country residence of the Grand Prince and for the summer residence of the metropolitans and boyar estates, also with gardens.

Some qualitative changes in the gardening of the Russian metropolis sprung up on the verge of 15th-16th centuries after the building in the Kremlin (1487-1508) of a new palace complex of the Grand Prince. This was designed and built under the direction of invited Italian architects and under the influence of Zoe, or Sophia, Palaeologus - the second wife of Grand Prince Ivan III (niece of the last Emperor of Byzantine)* who had lived for many years in Italy A hanging garden was planted on the camices of the royal Naberezhnaya Chamber which was constantly renovated until the end of 17th century In 1493 a "sovereign" garden was planted on the bank of the Moskva River opposite the Kremlin.

The place occupied by gardening in the daily life of the Muscovites during that period is demonstrated by references in the Domostroi "house manager") a kind of domestic encyclopedia of the general public. It contains a special chapter with practical recommendations on the cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables and also on the preservation of the crop. Dmitry Gerasimov, the Ambassador of the Grand Prince to Italy, wrote in 1525: "Nearly all of the

* See'. S. Nikitin, T. Panova, "Sophia Palaeo-logus and the Greek Profile of Ivan the Terrible", Science in Russia, No. 1, 1998. -Ed.

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houses (in Moscow) have attached to them separate gardens for the cultivation of vegetables and also for pleasure, because of which the metropolis of a rare size appears to be much bigger". And the same is reported in his Notes of Muscovi (1549) by an Austrian diplomat Sigismund Herbertstein who had visited the Russian capital on two occasions: "The city itself - of wooden architecture and rather large area, looks even bigger from within because it looks much bigger at the expense of spacious gardens and yards attached to every house and home."

At the turn of the 16th century there appear in the Zamoskvorechye part of Moscow (across the Moskva from the Kremlin) what were called "Sadovye (garden) slobodas", or suburbs, populated by palace gardeners. At the end of the century there appeared in the north-western part of the Zemlyanoi Gorod district of the capital a place called Ogorodnaya Sloboda (kitchen- garden district) where palace servants made their homes. The general panorama of parks and gardens in and around the royal quarters is supplied with data about "tsar's villages" around the capital, such as Vorontsovo, Kolomenskoye, Krasnoye, Vorobyovo, Cherkizovo and Rubtsovo.

A totally new institute for Russia was the first chemist's shop in 1581 which was originally located in the Kremlin grounds. A "medieval" garden was planted near it at almost the same time where they grew all sorts of fruit-trees, shrubbery with berries used for medicinal preparations and "healing" grasses.

New trends in the gardening skills were reflected in a survey of the Town of Borisov (1664) which was located 7 km away from the Town of Mozhaisk near Moscow. At the turn of 16th- 17th centuries a high hill there was chosen as the site for a country residence of Tsar Boris Godunov. Its builders planted what was called a "regular" (of strict geometrical proportions) garden with summer-houses, a large pond, an artificial island and a "swans' yard" (cages for swans). All of these comprised a magnificent white-stone architectural ensemble enclosed into a small fortress, or castle, with four comer towers, two gates and what is known as a tent (pyramidal) church of rare beauty.

The start of the 17th century saw several new gardens "blossoming up" in the Russian capital, including the Vasilyevsky (downstream from the Kremlin) and one on the Presnya River. Foreigners were struck by this abundance. Swedish diplomat, Peter Petrei, who often visited Moscow, denied in his notes (1615) a common opinion among the Europeans that Russia had no fruit- trees of real value or "greenery". He pointed out that these were "in greater abundance here, than in most other places". Describing large pastures, numerous grooves of trees and pleasure gardens, the ambassador made special mention of "three wonderful gardens with all sorts of trees and grasses and a large meadow within the city, right near the imperial palace".

It must have been not without foreign experts that a new Upper Quay Garden was spread out on the stone arches of the Kremlin Palace (near the Borovit-skaya Tower). It was angular in configuration, 9 sazhen (one sazhen = 216 cm) wide, 40 sazhen long and 26 sazhen long along the side of a flank building. The garden was surrounded by a stone wall which continued the side of the building. Through painted window grills and balcony windows one could admire a panorama of the Zamoskvorechye district where natural landscape was augmented with illusory pictures created by artists at the end of garden alleys. The most famous of them was

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Peter Enhels of Hamburg, whose paintings took visitors of the hanging gardens to labyrinths of imaginary urban and natural landscapes.

Planted in the same manner in Moscow was the Low Quay Garden with summer houses, ponds, fountains, fences and a monumental comer tower and hothouses for cultivating exotic flowers and vegetables. According to measuring blueprints prepared under the direction of the architect D. Ukhtomsky, two of the crossing alleys with a fountain in the center formed a cross. This picture of a dream-world was augmented by a flotilla of toy ships on the ponds where the future Emperor Peter the Great was learning his ropes. And there is no denying the fact that European experience was taken into account in planning such pleasure-grounds.

Numerous plans of the capital and other written sources attest to the existence in the 17th century in the Kremlin of other ground and "hanging" gardens. These were located on the Borovitsky Hill near the residences of the boyars and in the around monastery grounds. Of special interest were the Gardens of Semiramis at the Patriarch's and Poteshny (amusements) palaces. After the palace of Boyar Ivan Mstislavsky (father-in-law of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich) became royal possession as part of the palace structures, their lay-out and functions underwent significant changes. From 1672 they were used for "potekhi"- amusement shows (with the residence being called "Poteshny palace"). In 1685, craftsman Galaktion Nikitin, having altered one of the buildings directly attached to the north-western wall of the Kremlin, planted upon its roof an "upper Kremlin garden". Surrounded with a balustrade, it was located right next the Church of the Thanksgiving of the Mother of God and was connected with the church by staircase passages.

The Kremlin parks and gardens produced a great impact upon the horticulture of Moscow, the suburbs and certain other regions. The bulk of the garden plantations was naturally in keeping with the classical traditions, but the 17th century saw many innovations. For example, in the 1670s there ap-peared a hanging garden in the architectural ensemble of the Metropolitan's Palace in Rostov the Great*.

* See: V. Darkevich, "Miracle on Lake Nero", Science in Russia, No. 3, 1998. - Ed.

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The initiative belonged to the local cleric, Metropolitan Ion Sysoyevich, the locum tenens of the Russian patriarchal seat in Moscow in 1662-1664. And it must have been under the impression of his Moscow visits that he decided to bring his rural residence "up to date".

From the 1670s as indispensable condition in building or rebuilding official buildings or palacial structures (gardens including) were their detailed drawings of growing complexity. Thus massifs of green vegetation were often marked with three diverging stems, and separate trees-with a tree symbol with a straight trunk and tree crown. Scaled-down drawings with a dimensional greed came into common use, and from the 17th century what was called "regular" garden planning prevailed. And more often than not, the planners tried to reproduce Westem European prototypes, including such plants, exotic for the Russian con-

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ditions, as lemons, grapes, peaches, cherries, almond-trees, chestnuts and roses (replacing the formerly popular dogrose) and all sorts of tulips.

This new type of garden greenery can be seen on an icon called "The Heavenly Garden Enclosed" painted by Nikita Ravlovtsev circa 1670. The Theotokos holding Infant Christ is depicted against the background of a real garden. It is painted as a rectangular plot, fenced off from the wild nature with an enclosure consisting of shaped pillars supporting a railing adorned with intricate vases overflowing with splendid flowers. The clear geometry of the garden plot, divided into straight and crosswise flower beds, attracts the viewer's attention. The accurate planning of the plot is accentuated by some low trees planted along the walls at equal distances one from the other and pyramidal bushes also planted around the perimeter but at closer intervals. And one can clearly distinguish the garden flowers, including roses, tulips and carnations. The icon-painter must have copied his garden from some West European prototype, most likely a Dutch print. And that, somehow, reflects the readiness of the Russians of that period to adopt attractive gardening innovations.

Izmailovo - a country estate of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich located near Moscow - represents a pinnacle of Russian garden art of the 17th century A new royal residence was built there in the 1660s by the combined skill and efforts of serf craftsmen from Kiev, Astrakhan and the Crimea and also from abroad. Standing out among them was a certain Gregory Hut (probably a Dutchman) who was the chief gardener. Both traditional and exotic plants and flowers were used with some of the best fruit-trees delivered from different towns. Expeditions were dispatched to "distant lands" in search of out-of-the ordinary seeds, trees and herbs, like cotton seeds, exotic grapes, watermelons and melons.

The focal point of the exemplary royal estate in Izmailovo was the royal court on the banks of the Serebryanka River. To make it even better, they dug a bypass canal in 1667 and crossed the river with dams. As a result, the royal mansion turned out to be on an isolated island. But the building construction was delayed because the architects decided to begin with the planting and cultivation of gardens.

Under the supervision of the Dutchman Hut a garden was planted on a forest clearing some 3 km to the north of the estate. It offered a combination of grasses, fruit trees (mostly apple-trees), shrubbery and flowers. Judging by a 17th-century plan, the composition consisted of six squares, one inside the other. The central square contained an impressive stone rotunda topped with a weathercock in the form of a double-headed eagle. Visible through the arcade was the whole garden with four allegoric fountains in the form of wild beasts. In the comers of the first square there were 12 round flower-beds of intricate design which framed the next square. These were followed by bushes of barberry gooseberry and raspberries. The outer "frame" consisted of cereals like millet, oats, wheat, barley and buckwheat and there were also flax, peas and hemp.

Located to the north of the estate was the biggest garden- Vmogradny (vineyard, of more than 17 hectares). It contained mostly fruit trees and shrubbery, including 10 bushes of vines. Its composition was generally like that of the previous garden, with several concentric squares, but with large round openings in the comers. Planted there in concentric circles were pear-trees, red and white cherry-trees and "royal" plum-trees. Along the perimeter of the squares there were patches of rice, oats, buckwheat, barley wheat and also flowers and grasses. The center was marked out with a belt of red poppy flowers. The garden also featured covered timber passages and tower-chambers and there were even carved gates.

In the vicinity of the royal palace another round park was laid out in 1670, called Aptekarsky (chemist's). It consisted of four circles, one inside the other, divided into 10 sectors converging on the central round opening. The garden was meant for cultivating medicinal herbs as well as a pleasure-ground. This is demonstrated not only by its composition, but also by the choice of decorative grasses. Medicinal herbs were planted next to vegetables, all sorts of fruit trees and bushes (dogrose and barberry) and brightly colored flowers (poppies, cornflowers, carnations, etc.).

But the most impressive among the Izmailovo gardens was the one called Poteshny (amusement, or Italian park) located in direct proximity to the estate. The basis of its composition was a cross, consisting of one big and four smaller squares. In the center (large square, equal to the four smaller ones in size) there was a labyrinth, or maze (Babylon) decorated with a broad range of herbs and grasses in order to create an atmosphere of a fairytale world. And it was surrounded by all softs of fancy and brightly painted architectural structures like gates and bridges, stables and a tower-chamber.

Located on the western bank of the islet, next to the royal summer palace, was a menagerie (built in the 60s of the 17th century). Apart from the local beasts (elks, wild boars, bears, wolves, foxes and deer) there were also lions and tigers, leopards, lynxes and porcupines. Thus the Izmailovo royal estate and the park offers vivid proof of a new attitude towards the art of gardening in Russia.

By the late 17th century the Russian garden looses its traditional medieval features in favour of rational and visual values. While noting continued improvements in the art of horticulture and its European orientation, one should also note a decline of the deeply emotional sentiments which it used to produce. It started loosing touch with innermost religious sentiments and associations. A turn in favour of the visible beauties of this world offered the Russian a choice between a man-made garden and nature itself. And it was not accidental that on the verge of what we call the New Time the grooves and forests people saw around them not only excited their curiosity, but generated first attempts of imitating them. The 18th century saw a bloom of horticulture both in Europe and in Russia as well.