Pour a quarter of a liter of water over a teaspoon of herb, strain after ten minutes: the wormwood tea is ready. The herb helps with stomach pains, stimulates the appetite, lowers fever - and grows in the herb garden of Lichtenberg Castle near Thallichtenberg (Kusel district). A half-crumbled quarry stone wall and a small wooden fence surround the green beds in the lower castle.
The garden might have looked like this in the days of the knights - or it might not. Little is known about the castle gardens at that time, which is why Lichtenberg Castle took the medieval plan of the monastery of St. Gallen and a drawing of the garden of the Reichenau monastery, which the abbot Walahfrid Strabo had set up at the time of the Carolingians around 840, as a model.
The herb beds were laid out at Lichtenberg Castle in 1988 for illustration purposes. Because there are no classic herb gardens on castles, explains Friedhoff. In the late Middle Ages in particular, gardens were more likely to be used for edification. The picture of the "Paradiesgärtlein" by an Upper Rhine painter from 1410 illustrates this: In addition to those who plant the flower beds, musicians, people reading and talking are in the garden as a living space. On Lichtenberg, the garden was, as it is today, within the walls. Feudal deeds show that the houses of knightly castle men on the lower castle had a garden.
For several years now, a herb market has been held on the third weekend in June on the castle grounds. This time 1500 visitors crowded the stands in front of the medieval backdrop. With a length of 450 meters, Lichtenberg Castle is one of the largest castles in Germany. It was built around 1200 and belonged to the Counts of Veldenz.
The lower castle was followed in the 13th century by the upper castle with a keep and oval curtain wall.
In contrast to the widespread forest and meadow herbs that grow everywhere around the castle grounds, only mint and yarrow are common within the castle garden. Horehound, vinegar rose, fennel, catnip, lovage, feverfew and iris can only be found wild under particularly favorable climatic conditions. They are rare in the wild. The Romans, who brought them from the Mediterranean or Asia Minor to our latitudes, are mainly responsible for the immigration of many herbs. The seeds of rowan or rosemary were probably brought back by monks from the south. From the gardens of the newly founded monasteries, the green newcomers soon made their way to neighboring castles and villages - and so across the country.
The herb garden is fenced in, but everything can be seen from the outside at any time. Herbal garden tours are offered by arrangement: Registration by phone 06381/8429 or by email to
Film about the herb market
(in German language)
Klick here
