Orto Botanico ed Erbario dell'Università di Bologna

The Botanical Garden and Herbarium of the University of Bologna trace their origins to 1568, when the Bolognese Senate established a garden on the proposal of naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi. The garden and its collections preserve a long history of botanical teaching and research.

Why it matters

Founded after the early botanical gardens of Pisa, Padua and Florence, Bologna's garden became part of the university's work in Renaissance botany. Its herbarium includes dried-plant collections associated with Aldrovandi and later directors Giuseppe Monti, Ferdinando Bassi and Antonio Bertoloni.

What to notice

The garden combines named collections with beds arranged to represent natural environments. The Orto dei semplici recalls the early teaching of medicinal plants. Other features include tropical and succulent greenhouses, a glasshouse for carnivorous plants, a rock garden, pond and aquatic beds. The herbarium preserves historic dried plants, while the Brendel painted botanical models document nineteenth-century teaching.

Context and history

The garden first occupied a courtyard in the Palazzo Pubblico, where 800 plants were recorded by 1573. It moved in 1587 to a larger site near Porta Santo Stefano; by 1595 the collection numbered about 3,000 species. The University acquired the present site on Via Irnerio in 1803 and brought together the earlier collections. The complex is now part of the university's Sistema Museale di Ateneo.