We visited Oaxaca City in Mexico, I think about 10 years ago, and had a wonderful time. One of the places we visited was the Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo, which is former monastery, now a museum housing various items from the pre-Columban era including the contents of a tomb from nearby Monte Alban.
The garden of the monastery had recently been planted as an ethno-botanical garden, using plants that are native to the area.
Interior courtyard to the Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo below.
So I was delighted to catch a broadcast on BBC earlier this evening "Around the World in 80 Gardens" with Monty Don showing the garden as it is now, and giving some of its history. It seems there had been plans to turn the monastery into a hotel and a car-park. Thank goodness sense prevailed.
All the plants included have some meaning locally - religious, medical, perfume, as a food or for household use. It has one of the most extensive collections of cacti and agaves.
These are pictures of the gardens more recently. They appear to have matured quite a bit.
Photo from Flickr user loremipsum. Creative commons licence.
Photo from Flickr user loremipsum. Creative commons licence.
If you'd like to see more pictures of the garden, visit Gardner in Cacala. And for more information (which seems hard to come by) visit The Human Flower Project.
Great to see how the garden has growned up :-)
ReplyDeleteLooks like an interesting place, considering the architecture too. And os very different from Sweden of course and that's why I really love to see it!
It's amazing how it's changed over the years, though I admit it's quite a few years. A lovely place, I'm sure you would enjoy it.
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