The gardens belonging to St. Jørgen’s Hospital

Originally, the hospital owned two gardens and fairly large meadows around the buildings and on the other side of Kong Oscars gate, an area formerly called Hospitalsengen – the hospital pasture. The garden on the north side of the hospital was sold to Bergen municipality, while the garden behind the operating building still belongs to the hospital.

In the garden behind the farm building, a herb garden was established in 1993. The herb garden started in 1993 as a collaboration between organisation Det Nyttige Selskab in Bergen and the municipal parks department. It has been maintained in recent years by a team of keen volunteers.

The assortment of plants grown in the herb garden is mainly based on Doctor Daniel Cornelius Danielssen’s description of historical treatment methods in the book ‘Om Spedalskhed’ (On Leprosy) from 1847. Several of these herbs may also have been used in Norway in olden times. Some of the herbs grow in the wild, while others have been imported and cultivated at monasteries and convents, and later in apothecary gardens.

It is not known whether the hospital originally had a herb garden. The hospital was probably established on the grounds of Nonneseter Abbey, and the proximity of the Abbey to the hospital may suggest that the residents at St. Jørgen’s received plants for food and medicinal use. It is not certain which plants were used, and they were probably not intended to provide lasting or curative treatment, but were primarily an attempt to relieve symptoms and alleviate common ailments.

The herb garden is open for visitors during the museum’s opening hours.