Explaining the Contribution of Power to the Context of Communities in the Middle Ages and its Effect on the Functional Evolution of Gardens in the 6th-15 th Centuries

Problem statement: 

The factor of religion and the domination of the church’s instructions are the reason for undeveloped garden construction in the Middle ages. According to this fact, the human being in the Christianity era ignored nature and its manifestations because of ideological and extreme visions. As the matter of fact, the power of religious thoughts has led to not the cohesive gardens being formed in the early Middle Ages. As this power weakened in the late ages, the gardens were constructed according to aesthetics aspects. Religion dominated all dimension of the society. Therefore, other factors such as social status and people’s livelihood, political revolutions of sovereign powers, and economical situations have not been precisely investigated.

This research aims to investigate the reasons for developing gardens in the Middle Ages and answers the question of whether or not the religious dogmatism and the belief injected by the church about nature, make a negative impression on the essence and function of gardens in the middle ages. Except for religion, which factors are interfering in the functional evolutions of this era?

This research specifies the functions of gardens in the Middle Ages manipulating the indicating approach and analytic method. The research considers historical events and social context based on the written and pictorial analysis.

Research findings represent the combination of religious, political, economic, and social factors in Middle Age cities during 9 centuries, had affected the construction of the gardens in this era and the factor of power also rulers determined the essence, soul, and function of the gardens. In the 6- 12 th centuries, the rulers (church- feudal) created religious, livelihood- functional gardens and in the 12-15 th centuries, elites (business categories) formed joyful gardens.