Welcome to the oldest university botanical garden in the world.

University botanists have been studying and cultivating plants of all kinds in this garden since 1545, not only to learn about them but also how to use them. Here we work with books and rakes: theory and practice together. This is how we built a solid tradition of expertise that allows us to withstand the test of time, disease and lightning.

This garden was an innovative idea that inspired universities all over the world.

In 1997, UNESCO included us in its World Heritage list, with this motivation: “The botanical garden of Padua is the cradle of science”. This scientific mission is alive and well today. For instance, the garden is committed to the principles of the “Edinburgh Charter”, which encourages us to act for the conservation of biodiversity. Since 1985, Padua botanical garden has promoted the protection of rare and endangered spontaneous plants of north-eastern Italy.

Species from all over the planet have been cultivated in the garden and there were already 1,500 varieties just one short year after its foundation, in 1546. Today there are more than 3,000, many with incredible stories if we can but see them with all our senses. There is a plane tree that is almost 400 years old; a palm mentioned by Goethe in person; poisonous and medicinal plants studied here for the first time; treasures of biodiversity still to be investigated, even collections of rare herbaria, algae and fungi.

How could all these plants have come this far? Who brought them and why? This, and much more, is what we would like you to discover in our tour together!