When Spices Were Cultivated in Venice

Adventurous garden walk, taking you back 600 years, and into a former spice garden in Venice.

Cultivating spices¹ in the Lagoon of Venice? Yes, we’re talking of cinnamon and pepper, cardamom and saffron, to name just a few. In this post, a special journey awaits you, back to the year 1500, when spice plants were considered “normal” plants in Venetian gardens.

Jungle gardens in the Lagoon? Yes, in the 15th century, Venice counted the largest number of botanical gardens in Europe!

Sounds incredible, but was possible because of the exceptionally mild climate of the Lagoon, and spice plants being protected in the gardens by larger endemic Mediterranean plants.

Would you expect lush tropical-looking gardens like this one in Venice? What did the gardens in Venice look like in the past?

Well, this sort of “jungle” was actually normal in more than 400 botanical gardens you’d have seen in Venice in the year 1500!. The formal gardens that one might expect also existed, but they were located next to the house and terrace. The rest of a Venetian garden of the past looked deliberately “wild” imitating “nature”. In Venice, formal gardens all’italiana were only created in the 19th century in Venice.

The images you can see in this post were taken in Venice in late April, in one of the last gardens that have kept the original look and feel. It’s a private garden, that is not open to the public, and in this post, we’re taking you on a fascinating journey back in time, discovering the verdant paradise that Venice was in the 15th century.