Büro für Gartendenkmalpflege

The monastery St. Georgen in Stein am Rhein in the Swiss Canton of Schaffhausen once was a Benedictine Abbey founded during the early 11th century. Today it is a museum with a special feature: its vast and beautiful garden of which parts have only been recently re-opened. Responsible for its new landscape design was the Zurich-based Büro für Gartendenkmalpflege.

“What I enjoy most is that we could give the terraced gardens back their sensuality in replanting them,” says landscape designer Steffen Osoegawa. During that process, three main aims were fulfilled. First of all the careful maintenance of the lower terrace situated directly at the Rhine promenade. Secondly the restoration of the middle terrace sticking to the original layout and colour scheme of Gustav Amman, a leading figure of modern garden design. Last, but not least, the Büro für Gartendenkmalpflege created a new medicinal garden where once the abbey garden had been situated.