The history and practices of sustainable cultivation in the Vatican Gardens

In the Vatican Gardens, next to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, lies a small vegetable garden whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages. It was Pope Nicholas III Orsini who, when he transferred the papal residence from the Lateran to the Vatican between 1277 and 1280, also commissioned an orchard and a proper viridarium[elegant garden], enclosed within the new walls: a productive space that also helped supply the papal kitchen.