General Information for Guides

Ramat Hanadiv – Introduction
On the southern tip of Mt. Carmel, between Zihkron Ya’akov and Binyamina, lies Ramat Hanadiv. In April 1954 the Israeli Government decided to bring Baron Benjamin Edmond de Rothschild and his wife Baroness Ada Adelaide de Rothschild to eternal rest with a state funeral, twenty years after their passing. The Baron asked to be buried at the heart of one of the regions most populated with settlements that he had helped to establish. In 1958 the “Ramat Hanadiv Act” was passed, determining that Ramat Hanadiv will maintain these lands and manage them as a public garden and park dedicated to the memory of Baron Rothschild.
Since then, Ramat Hanadiv serves as a living memorial to the legacy of the Baron, who is known as ‘The Known Benefactor’ and ‘The Founding Father of the Yishuv’ and to his work.
In 1936, the Baron’s son, James de Rothschild, and his wife Dorothy, initiated the establishment of the Memorial Gardens. The mountain that was known as Umm el-Aleq was chosen to be the location for planting the gardens, due to its beauty and its location among the Baron’s moshavot (early Jewish agricultural settlements).

At the Garden Gates
The entrance gate made of iron welcomes visitors to the Memorial Gardens. Above it is the Rothschild family crest: a bronze shield supported on each size by a lion and a unicorn, symbols of power, topped by a crown of apples. The shield is divided into four quarters displaying reliefs of an eagle, a lion and a clenched fist holding five arrows, representing the five Rothschild brothers, the sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, head of the family. Baron Edmond Rothschild was the son of James, the youngest brother. The small shield symbolises their contribution to commerce. On the front of the Rothschild family house hung a red shield (‘rot schild’ in German), which with time became the family name. Under the shield appear the words ‘Concordia, Integritas, Industria’ – meaning unity, integrity, diligence – values that served as guiding principles for the family members.

Design of the Gardens
The establishment of the Gardens was initiated by Edmond James de Rothschild, the son of the Baron, in 1936, two years after the death of his father, who had expressed his desire to be buried in the soil of the Carmel. The site was chosen due to its beauty and its location – among the moshavot of the Baron. Fourteen of the country’s leading architects were invited to submit plans for the project. The architect Uriel (Otto) Schiller won the competition and invited the landscape architect Shlomo Weinberg (Oren) to join him in selecting the different vegetation compositions and their placement in the garden. Construction of the Memorial Gardens began in 1938, but was delayed by World War II and the War of Independence. On completion of the work, on April 6, 1954, a funeral ceremony was conducted and the Gardens were opened.
In the centre of the gardens stands the crypt surrounded by the different gardens. Meandering walking trails connect the gardens and invite visitors to wander around and discover the site’s secrets, each at their own pace. The trails traverse a range of different types of vegetation, lawns, fountains and ponds. The main principle guiding Uriel Schiller in his work was the contrast between two worlds – life and death. The site serves on one hand as a crypt, and on the other hand nurtures the aesthetics of life – flowering and nature, and many people visit it.

The Garden’s Trails

The network of trails leading from the entrance to the different parts of the Gardens ‘winks’ to the visitors and invites them to discover the Gardens’ secrets in myriad ways. Each trail provides access both to the crypt and to all of the gardens surrounding it. The walking trails pass between planted woodlands and wild areas, expansive lawns lead to shaded corners, colourful flowering carpets neighbor aromatic garden beds of herbs and aromatic plants. Ornamental ponds and seating corners hiding behind the climbers are scattered among the trails. The trails allow visitors to pass by ‘windows’ looking out over the landscape beyond the Gardens: the Mediterranean Sea, Zikhron Ya’akov, the Mountains of Samaria and the open landscape of the Nature Park.

The Cascade Garden
This garden opens a window to the Mediterranean Sea.
At the top of the garden is a relief map showing the locations of the moshavot and other settlements that were founded and flourished with the support of the Baron.
A stream flows down the slope, through a series of terraces, to a pond. The pond is shaped in a semi-circle and on its edge is a sculpture of two hands attempting to grasp the flowing water, which represents time passing by.
Dragon trees, whose impressive shape catches the eye, are planted beside the flights of steps leading downwards.

The Iris Garden
This young garden was established in 2010 as a rare collection of Oncocyclus irises. Due to accelerated development in recent years, open landscapes are shrinking, causing these irises to become rarer. Some of them are even in danger of extinction.
The garden is designed to include about 50 species growing in nature. The plants are gathered from disturbed habitats, transferred to a nursery at Ramat Hanadiv for acclimation, and subsequently planted permanently in the soil of the garden. The species in the garden flower from February to April, and as the years pass, their flowering will become stronger.
The garden serves as an example of combining wild vegetation in ornamental gadens; therefore, its gardening is low-maintenance and makes do with irrigation by rain.

The Fragrance Garden
This garden arouses recognition of the beauty of nature through the senses of smell, touch and hearing. The garden abounds with plants that give off strong and unique fragrances, as well as those that arouse the sense of touch. A bubbling water fountain serves as a sound compass that hints at the location of the visitor with respect to the entrance.
Dorothy de Rothschild, the daughter-in-law of the Baron and his successor, looked for a way to also allow the blind and the sight-impaired to enjoy the site, and initiated the establishment of the Fragrance Garden.
The garden was designed by Miller Blum Environmental Planning and was opened to the public in 1988.

Nature also Visits the Gardens
The Memorial Gardens are located at the heart of an expansive Nature Park, which serves as a habitat for plants and wildlife. Windows to the open landscape of the Nature Park open in the gaps between the Gardens’ trees, linking between the two seemingly contrasting worlds. Neighbours from the Nature Park also show interest in the Gardens and they come to visit during both day and night. During the day butterflies are at the height of their activity: they identify nectar-rich flowers and plants that serve as safe havens for rearing their caterpillars. They are joined by a range of birds that find the garden vegetation to be rich in sources of food and places to hide and nest. At night, when darkness and silence fall on the Gardens, the visitors change. The howls of jackals, heard from a great distance, expose their nighttime jaunt on the meticulous lawns, porcupines find mouth-watering food in the fresh seedlings, and fruit bats enjoy the fruits of the different Ficus trees.