A mennyei topográfia

The Cistercians and the Hermit Orders were in very close connection with nature in the Middle Ages. Both of them regarded nature as the result of God’s Creation, they projected their symbolic and biblical approach to the environment of their abbeys. However, there were differences between the Cistercian and the hermitic approach. The Cistercian landscape was an artificial landscape, the members of the order thought that their role is to imitate God’s work, and improve the natural environment. The Cistercians transformed the landscape both in physical and spiritual sense. We know about the physical transformations from medieval chroniclers, such as Walter Map. We can examine the features of this monastic landscape with the methods of landscape archaeology. While the hagiographical sources from the 12th -13th century illustrate the symbolic transformation of the landscape, the presence of holy men converted the desert place (locus horribilis) to fertile Paradise (locus amoenus). We can also find allusions to the landscape transformation in the place names. Some place names refer to asserting (deforestation) or agricultural activity, while most of the Cistercian place names hint to the heavenly happiness and beauty, for example: Clairvaux (light valley), Clairefontaine (pure fountain), Beaupré (beautiful meadow), Bonnevaux (good valley), Aiguebelle (beautiful water). The contemporary chroniclers, as Ordericus Vitalis also noticed this phenomenon. We collected 600 place names and divided them in two groups. The first group is the Cistercian, the second one consists of the place names of the Hermit Orders, such as the Carthusians, the Grandmontines, Camaldulians, etc. Both groups consist of 300 abbey names. In the scale we represent only the male abbeys, we do not analyse the female monasteries and the granges. These place names refer to landscape features, such as relief, hydrography and vegetation. We compared the naming habits of the two groups. The statistics show the main differences between the groups. Sometimes there were connections between place names and the settlement strategies of the orders. Consequently, the Cistercians preferred the valleys more, while the Hermit Orders the mountains. There were slightly more symbolic place names in the group of the Cistercians. There were no allusions in the group of the Hermit Orders to asserting (woodland clearance), while some Cistercian place names for example: Sarthe, Himmerod, Marienrode, Rode, Rueda, Ruhe/Ryd, Sarravalle, Volkenrode, Walkenried directly refers to woodland clearance. Sometimes there are references in the names to the type of the woodland and the vegetation such as ash, oak, beech, linden, alder, sallow and pine trees. We can find most of the woodland tree names in the group of the Grandmontine order. Hunting was prohibited for the members of these religious houses, although we can find place names such as Breuil, Brolium which means game-preserve. This brief article could only glance at the naming habits of the mentioned monastic and hermit orders. The names of the granges can offer more information about the medieval landscape.