A botanical garden for hospitality and dissemination

Hortus Gymnasium, as a model farm, also aims to contribute to the education of citizens in recognizing the values of environmental protection in order to distinguish and deliberately choose forms of behavior and consumption aimed at the affirmation of a lasting well-being in the collective territory. Demonstrating the values of biodiversity conservation and healthy and natural farming practices are one of the best ways to raise people’s awareness of the quality of agricultural and food products as a result of careful and responsible cultivation. It is a form of agriculture that combines the production activity with the social function, Hortus Gymnasium, thus becomes an area where simple reception can be conducted but also social development for the community of reference: socioeconomic promotion of the territory thanks to the predisposition of collections of plants, walkways and signs, equipped to welcome schools and families and show them the oldest species and crops in the rural environment, with games and practical activities, through a sustainable tourism model, characterized by visits and didactic activities in the farm and by some nature education tours in the area.

In support of the collections and paths presented in the five gardens and in the cold greenhouse, Hortus Gymnasium provides: access to a library of botany, agriculture, natural reserves, gardening and garden architecture, as well as the multimedia equipment as a support to the visit (signs, audioguides, monitor terminals for documentary videos; viewing crop status via on-line dashboard, which reports values from various digital farm control system sensors; access to the lab for the treatment of medicinal herbs and the extraction of essences; and access to the thermostated cell with natural insulation where the agricultural materials and the products are preserved. Already in the realization of the cold greenhouse and the natural insulating cell has been invested with an important sense of garden design. In fact, the “cold greenhouse” roof, designed and made of lamellar wood, shows a striking double consecutive flap, with two aisles 6 meters deep and 18 meters long positioned cantilevered, on different levels, so as to obtain a large wavy pendant that follows the natural orography of the surrounding countryside. The scenic structure with slopes facing southwest allows you to allocate a number of solar thermal panels whose tubes represent a transparent grid. Under the “long step”, which serves as a base to the uphill aisle, a tunnel was built to accommodate the naturally thermostated cell for agricultural products. It is characterized by a single vault made with bricks with traditional techniques, without reinforced concrete, which is a unique blend and measuring 6 meters in diameter and 18 meters in length and is quite the sight. The walls, full of containment, were constructed with local stone from the San Lucido quarry, with irregular blocks. The two levels are connected by a double-ramp staircase mounted on an identical brick arch, in diameter and in construction, and that of the tunnel in the hill.