URBAN GARDENING - Bamberg's intangible cultural heritage
This video was submitted in November 2022 by Tamara Winkhardt-Möglich. Thank you for your submission Ms Menzies!
The Town of Bamberg was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993 due to its medieval layout and its very well-preserved historic buildings. The Market Gardeners’ District with its inner-city cultivated areas is an integral part of the World Heritage Site. Urban horticulture has been practised here since the Middle Ages, right up to the present day.
Commercial horticulture has declined sharply in recent decades. As a result, large parts of the inner-city open space structures have fallen out of use. At the same time, new models of use such as self-harvest gardens and solidarity farming projects have emerged and historic liquorice cultivation revived. Old crops that are ideally adapted to Bamberg's climate and soil use being preserved for the future in a variety garden.
In several families, the next generation has now taken over the horticultural business. Some of these young people even have a seat on the city council to ensure that the interests of the gardeners get a hearing in the political arena.
Urban gardening is not a new trend in Bamberg, but looks back on centuries of tradition. The knowledge of growing and harvesting crops as well as seed propagation is passing down from generation to generation. This knowledge and skill is so valuable that it was included in the National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016.
More info at https://welterbe.bamberg.de/en/.