The garden of Bois Richeux is an interpretation of the Middle-Ages garden –as were designed all medieval gardens in Europe. With no description and plan available, it has been created according to the descriptions contained in the Cartulaire de Notre Dame de Chartres (XIVth century), with the help of illuminatings, the list of vegetables of the Capitulaire de Villis, the work of Sainte Hildegarde de Bingen and the plan of Saint Gall monastery (Switzerland).
It also bears the heritage of Arabian culture (medicine, garden, perfume) which influence spread through crusades, North Africa and Spain.

It has been redesigned in 1996, to bring back the memory of a major place during medieval history, a place which welcomed the very first frank peasants 800 years ago. Still putting forward the fascinating purpose of medieval gardens to feed and nourish: the body and the soul.

During the Middle-Ages, gardens had to respect precise rules to attend the needs of population. Those rules of good use were dictated in a legal code: the capitulary of Villis.
Ordered by Charlemagne in approximately 795, it describes the compulsory methods and plants to be cultivated in royal gardens.

© Jardin de Bois Richeux - 2011