Blog
The Giardino della Minerva, Salerno's garden of medieval doctors
Photo: Miguel Hermoso Cuesta, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, resized
In the Middle Ages, becoming a doctor in Salerno meant learning to recognise plants. Not just from books, but in person, with a teacher pointing them out one by one and explaining their names and properties. The lesson even had a Latin name, ostensio simplicium, "the showing of the simples". The place where it happened still exists: the Giardino della Minerva, or Minerva Garden.
A family story
The land belonged to the Silvatico family as early as the 12th century. In the first decades of the 1300s, one of them, Matteo Silvatico, a physician of the Salerno Medical School with a deep knowledge of plants, laid out a "garden of simples" there: a plot of medicinal plants for the school's teachers.
Matteo Silvatico is remembered above all for one work, the Opus pandectarum medicinae, a kind of encyclopaedia of "simples", the plant parts used to make remedies. According to Italy's Ministry of Culture, Salerno's garden may be the oldest botanical garden linked to a medical school.
What it looks like
The garden is built in terraces, one above the other, on the slope that climbs from the old town towards the castle. Each terrace has its own basin or fountain, decorated with limestone concretions.
The feature most visitors remember is a long 18th-century staircase, with cross-shaped pillars holding up a pergola. Climbing it feels like crossing the garden vertically, one level at a time.
Water and climate
Two details explain why plants thrive right here. The first is water: plentiful springs, channelled through the garden, kept it under cultivation for centuries. The second is its position: facing south and sheltered from the cold north wind, the garden enjoys a mild microclimate, ideal for plants that like warmth and humidity.
The restoration
The garden you visit today is the result of a restoration completed in September 2000, which brought its 18th-century features back to light.
Tips for your visit
- Comfortable shoes: the paths are narrow and there are several steep flights of steps.
- Take your time: look at the plants and imagine how medieval doctors used them; it's the best way to understand the place.
- Check opening times and tickets on the garden's official website before you go, as they can change.
From anywhere in the old town it's a short walk. From our B&B, in the same area, it's about 250 metres.