Botanical Garden, Padua
The Orto Botanico of Padua is the oldest Botanical Garden in the world that has been in continuous use. It was established in 1545 by the University of Padua (and designed by Daniele Barbaro), and has been a great influence on other botanical gardens around the world.
The garden at first was geared to the growth of medicinal plants. Over the years it was enriched with plants from all over the world, brought in by the Venetian Empire. Later additions are the greenhouses, the four wrought-iron gates, an arboretum and an English garden.
The Orto Botanico is also home to an impressive scientific library of more than 50.000 volumes.
Visit April 2007
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I visited Padua on the same day as Vicenza. They’re only about an half hour apart by train, but you’ll have to make an early start and plan your trip well. I had pre-booked a visit to Padua’s most renowned sight, the Cappella degli Scrovegni (on Italy’s Tentative List), but arrived way too late to make the allocated time-slot.
So I just walked on to the Botanical Garden. It is located on the other side of town from the railway station. The station area is rather scruffy, and the center of town also lacks atmosphere. The Garden however is a real oasis, pleasing to the senses and to my feet where all the walking was taking its toll. After paying a 4 EUR entrance fee you’re free to drop down on one of the benches in the garden. There were quite a number of other visitors around, even a bored-looking Belgian school class.
After giving my feet a rest, I roamed around the garden for an hour or so, trying to capture the few blossoming flowers on camera. The oldest plant around is the so-called Goethe palm, which dates from 1585. It was visited by Goethe in 1786, who got inspired by it to write about evolution. The palm nowadays is covered by a glass house.
The area is quite small, and the idea that everything has been here for such a long time is more interesting than the site itself. The nearby Basilica del Santo is worth a look when you’ve visited the garden.
More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery
Reviews
Annett Henkel (Germany):
I presently visited the Orto Botanico di Padova, the original of all botanical gardens throughout the world and I was appalled by this place. The leading role in the introduction and study of many exotic plants was difficult to detect and the museum is farcical. Even if the garden is notable for its age it is not in a really good condition when you are focussing on plants and not on historical design. There is no reason to bewail the size of the squares where plants are allowed to grow because of the size of the garden. But there are no excuses for that concussive way of presenting plants - in any botanical garden. Many of the herbaceous plants were undernourished or even absent (please have a look on the photograph). I commendatory can say that every square has its nameplate but it really shocked me to discover for example missing Thyme which is very robust genus and able to cope with fierce conditions. In my eyes it is also questionable whether strawberry can be seen as a poisonous plant. Maybe the classification into that category portends that the leaves can be pharmaceutical useful but classifying Fragaria vesca as poisonous is incorrect. Anybody might explain this decision to me.
For me the visit in the Orto Botanico was a degrading event which really upset me a fortiori if you see this garden from an angle of an UNESCO World Heritage Site. It might represent the birth of science and scientific exchanges but I was not able to find the conception for establish understanding of the relationship between nature and culture - unless plants are not in important anymore and the garden can be seen as a sign for the progress in technology and there is no need to waste time and manpower. |
| Date posted: June 2010 |
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The Botanical Garden in Padua contains lots of poisonous plants originally which they thought were used for good use. Only short after they realised these plants were deadly poisonous. The oldest tree in the Botanical Garden that has lived for over 300 years is the Redgum Bobanic Tree. The original Layout of the Garden was a circled plot with water surrounding it. Right plotted in the middle is a fountain (Also known as the fountain of life) with a path leading to other areas of the site.
It was voted in the "top 40 endangered sites Of the world" in 2000 - 2001 |
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David Berlanda (Italy / Czech Republic):
 I have visited once the Botanical Garden of Padua, founded in 1545 by the University under the project of Andrea Moroni and of the humanist Daniele Barbaro, originally for containing 1500 plants, useful for the pharmacy, as the first botanical garden in the world. The 22000 sq. m. of its irregularly shaped area, originally enclosed by a high brick wall, represent the world surrounded by the ocean (Alicorno canal) and contain a closed circular garden 86 m in diameter, which enclosed a 41 m square plot; the entire garden is divided in four quadrants by pathways at right-angles to one another, running to the four cardinal points. Since the foundation of the garden, with many later additions, the four smaller squares created by the two pathways cutting the central square, are decorated with geometric flower beds, bordered with stone, in each of which is a plant specie. In 1704, when the four entrances were modified, the wrought iron gates giving to the inner circles and the four acroteria were placed on the eight pillars and surmounted by four pairs of wrought iron plants. In this period were also build two fountains, made of Istrian stone, outside the circular garden, and the nice balustrade, that runs for 250 m on the circular wall. Some of the greenhouses made of heated stone, that replaced the mobile conservatories, used for protecting delicate plants in the winter, retain the original heating system and the pumping installations. The library contains 50000 volumes and 1500 portraits and pictures of the botanists and the herbarium, the second biggest in Italy, contains 416500 dried specimen. The Garden collected rare plants, that were later introduced into the rest of Europe and there are some of the oldest European specimens; a plant was also studied by Goethe during his visit in Italy. The 6000 exemplars are arranged with systematic and utilitarian or ecological-environmental criteria or in thematic or single collections.
I was a little bit disappointed by the garden because I thought that it is bigger, even if it is interesting. It’s worth to be visited if you are in Padua and however justifies the inscription, even if it could be inscribed with the complex of the Square of St. Antonius , with its stunning basilica and school, Gattamelata's Monument amd Oratory of St. George, and of the square Prato della Valle with the Basilica of St. Giustina; also the Scrovegni Chapel, currently on the Tentative list, can be inscribed as a separated monument.
Photo: Padua - Botanical Garden |
| Date posted: March 2006 |
Graeme Ramshaw ():
 The Orto Botanico is yet another gem in the already amazing town of Padova. The garden itself is quite small, but it is notable for its age (founded in 1545) and its contribution to botany and agriculture in Italy. Hundreds of varieties of plants are on display in the circular grounds of the garden in the shadow of the imposing Basilica of St. Anthony, and the entrance fee for students is only 1 euro. Once you've explored the garden, don't miss the Basilica, the impressive Duomo and Baptistry, the truly stunning Cappella degli Scrovegni (with frescoes by Giotto), or any of the other numerous hidden treasures that Padova has to offer. |
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