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The
revival of the gardens
Currently
in the archaeological area of Pompeii
it is in course a research focused on the type of vegetation
used at that time for green spaces, thanks to a method that used new
technologies and thanks to the presence of specialists in biology and
botany.
The
architecture of the garden was
particularly cared in Roman environment. The house had large open
spaces, on which rooms leaned out, surrounded by a peristilium, adorned
with flowers and plants. These spaces, called viridarium,
besides being a place where to spend pleasant moments, had religious
meanings, connected with nature and its relation with the divinities
of the seasons; they served to cultivate the flowers
for the crowns destined to the offers to the gods; they produced medicinal
plants for daily necessities; finally, they made more pleasant
life with the sight of the flowers in different seasons and with the
strong smell of the Mediterranean flora.
After
all every plant had its own allegorical meaning and for this it was
used in the religious ceremonies: laurel
was synonymous of wisdom and heroic virtue; oleander,
symbol of death; arbutus,
represented eternity; viburnum, the
plant of the triumphs; rose
symbolized love; plane – tree,
that not for a case in Pompeii adorned the Palæstra
(Gymnasium),
was metaphor of strenght and resistance to the adversities of life; violet
was the weding flower for excellence; white
cysts with five petals, was symbol of the human frailty.
All
these types and others like lily, carnation,
orange blossom, periwinkle,
date palm, ivy,
are reproduced carefully in the paintings of garden, whose vivid colors
covered the inside rooms of the houses, extending the closed spaces and
recreating, in this way, the amenity of the open spaces.
The
study on vegetable species allowed
to recognize every plant, every bush, every flower. This gave a rebirth
to gardens like an essential part of the restauration of the
houses, respecting mostly ancient cultivations. This has been made
possible for the ground in Pompeii
didn’t suffered any substantial upheavals from the time of the
eruption; moreover, the modern technologies to recover the pollens
from the ground, through which plants have been recognized, allow not
only to know the ancient vegetation but also the same disposition
of the ornamental plants inside the gardens.
In
this way, scientific studies allowed to relate different methods
of work; they improve in visitors the comprehension of that
marvellous reality that it is Pompeii,
able to offer unforgettable emotions.
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