Pine Cone Garden

In the summer of 2003, one of the monk’s gardens in the Carthusian Monastery of Padula was transformed into a Pine Cone Garden. The design symbolizes concepts of life and death, excess and luxury in relation to finiteness and decay.

In combination with the existing cedar trees, Pinecones create an aroma of forest and dried wood. The excess of pinecones is overwhelming, and the crackling of drying seeds in the sun brings a consciousness of the evolutionary process. During the night, the pinecones glow from underneath with a red light. The hills of Padula rise above the surrounding pinecone walls. Only this view and the blue sky with the bright sun place you back in reality.