Blooming Medicine

In centuries gone by, medical assistance was often difficult to access in rural areas. The nearest doctor was often located far away, treatment was barely affordable for many farmers, and the remoteness of many farms required the greatest possible level of self-sufficiency. As a result, the rural population relied on folk medicine knowledge passed down through generations and attempted to treat themselves to begin with. The exhibition Blooming Medicine at the Austrian Open-Air Museum in Stübing offers a survey of the development and importance of medicinal plants, ranging from antiquity to the monastery gardens of the Middle Ages, through to folk medicine and its impact in the modern world. It thus becomes clear just how closely people’s lives were once connected to nature – and how much of this knowledge from earlier days has been preserved and is still used today.

Nearly every farm had its own garden where medicinal plants, herbs and flowers were cultivated. The locals knew exactly what the effects of the herbs in their surroundings were. They used them to make teas, ointments, plasters and tinctures, based on traditional knowledge that was passed on mainly by women. In addition to local herbs, expensive spices and ‘miracle drugs’ from the Orient were also traded, affordable only to the wealthy. The rural population made use of what they collected or grew themselves.