Padua Botanical Garden

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Padua Botanical Garden
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Padua (1) .jpg
Botanical Garden of Padua, in the background the Basilica of St. Antony
National territory: ItalyItaly Italy
Type: Culture
Criteria : (ii), (iiii)
Reference No .: 824
UNESCO region : Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 1997  (session 21)

The Padua Botanical Garden , in Italian Orto Botanico di Padova , is the first and oldest botanical garden in the world, which is still in its original location in Padua , Italy . It was founded in 1545 and belongs to the University of Padua . It currently has an area of ​​around 22,000 m² with 6000 plant species and is known for its special collections and its historical structure.

history

The Padua Botanical Garden ( Orto dei semplici ) in a 16th century print
Roberto de Visiani, director of the garden from 1837–1878

In 1533, Francesco Bonafede founded the study of pharmacology, then called "Lectrum Simplicium", at the University of Padua. The Padua Botanical Garden was founded by the Senate of the Republic of Venice . It was laid out on the site of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Giustina according to the design by Daniele Barbaro by the architect Andrea Moroni near the Basilica of Santa Giustina and its basic plan is largely unchanged. In 1554 the original system was completed. Its first important function was the cultivation of medicinal plants ( Horto dei semplici ) and the provision of illustrative material for the training of the students, who were supposed to distinguish medicinal plants from similar-looking plant species.

The plant collections were continuously expanded with species from all over the world, especially those with which Venice traded. This gave Padua the main role in the introduction and study of exotic plants, supplemented with a herbarium and a scientific library . Seven years after its founding, it comprised 1500 species of plants. In 1565 a lilac was grown here for the first time in Europe , and in 1568 sunflowers for the first time in Europe . The first potato in Europe was also grown here.

In 1837 Roberto de Visiani became the fourteenth director of the Padua Botanical Garden. Visiani, who was born in Dalmatia, was in charge of the garden until 1878. Under Visiani, in cooperation with important botanists (including Paul Ascherson , Joseph Karl Maly , Josif Pančić , Jozsef Pantocsek , Otto Sendtner ), Flora Dalmatica was centrally supervised as Visiani's life's work on the flora in the Kingdom of Dalmatia in the Padua Botanical Garden. This made Visiani and his teaching institution one of the leading botanical collections of the 19th century in Europe. Visiani had described over 1,000 new taxonomic names and 600 new species. His work is one of the most outstanding in 19th century European botany in terms of scope and importance. The Botanical Museum of the Botanical Garden still houses the Herbarium of Flora Dalmatica , which contains over 10,000 entries. This also contains the records of the botanists from Germany, Austria-Hungary and Serbia who cooperate with Visiani. In the case of Paul Ascherson, then director of the Botanical Garden in Berlin , the documents survived in Padua, while they were lost there when the Berlin herbarium was bombed in 1943. Among other things , the Herbar Visianis cataloged as a complete collection contains many types of evidence , such as the botanically significant collections from the previously unprocessed Orjen , the highest and most important mountains in Dalmatia from the expeditions in 1840, 1863, 1864, 1868 by Franz Neumayer, Jozsef Pantocsek, Josif Pančić and Paul Ascherson in completing the Flora Dalmatica Visiani. Visiani himself could no longer visit the Orjen despite long planning.

Today the facility is used to train biology and pharmacy students, research and preserve rare species. 400,000 dried specimen copies have been collected in the Botanical Garden. In 1997, the Botanical Garden was in the list of World Heritage of UNESCO added.

investment

The oval complex has four gates from the 16th century, which are entwined with wrought-iron exotic plants. The concentric paths lead past flower beds that are geometrically arranged around the fountain. On the grounds of the botanical garden there is a pharmacological museum as well as a library with documents from the 15th century on its development.

The “Goethe Palme” greenhouse
In the Botanical Garden of Padua, in the background the Basilica of St. Antony

Special plants

Until 1984 the garden housed a specimen of the monk's pepper ( Vitex agnus-castus ), which is said to have existed since at least 1550. Currently the oldest plant is a dwarf palm ( Chamaerops humilis var. Arborescens ), which was planted in 1585 and is called the "Goethe palm" because Johann Wolfgang von Goethe mentioned it in his " History of my botanical studies " in 1817/1831; This palm is in a small greenhouse in the Hortus Sphaericus , which also houses a 19-meter-high ginkgo from 1750 and a magnolia from the mid-17th century, which are considered to be the oldest specimens of this species in Europe. A very large plane tree in the arboretum dates from 1680; it has a hollow trunk from a lightning strike.

Collections

Since there are only a few greenhouses, almost all plants are outdoors. 6000 plant species are currently being cultivated and shown sorted according to systematic and plant-geographical aspects. The systematic department is mainly located in four large, centrally located beds. They are arranged according to Adolf Engler's system ( systematics of plants according to Engler ), i.e. the phylogenetic relationship of the plant families. In addition, the medicinal plants department is still very important. Each plant is identified by a label with the scientific name and its main medicinal properties. There has recently been a poisonous plants department, which of course also mainly serves didactic purposes.

Special collections:

Representation of habitats

  • Mediterranean maquis : Contains the typical coastal vegetation of the Mediterranean area with a climate that is characterized by hot summers and mild winters. There are many thorny shrubs and creepers there
  • Alpinum
  • Freshwater habitat
  • Succulent plants: a desert habitat (interesting in spring and summer)
  • Orchid greenhouse with plant species from tropical rainforests

Garden of Biodiversity

In 2014 a greenhouse facility was opened as an extension of the historical garden. The cost of the modern, resource-saving system was 20 million euros. Around 1300 plant species are arranged according to the vegetation .

literature

  • A. Minelli: The botanical garden of Padova (1545-1995) , Marsilio, 1988, ISBN 88-317-6977-4
  • G. Buffa, F. Bracco, N. Tornadore: Guida all'Orto Botanico di Padova. Quattro percorsi per conoscerne la storia e le piante . Centrooffset, Padova, 1999, ISBN 88-900229-1-4

See also

Web links

Commons : Padua Botanical Garden  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.musei.unipd.it/it/botanico/collezioni/botanica-flora-dalmatica Flora Dalmatica
  2. ↑ Moreno Clemeti 2017: A Cross-disciplinary Study of the Work and Collections by Roberto de Visiani (1800–1878). Phd Thesis, University of Padua (PDF)
  3. ↑ Botanical Garden in Padua: Goethe and Biodiversity. In: sueddeutsche.de. June 21, 2015, accessed February 24, 2017 .

Coordinates: 45 ° 24 '4.9 "  N , 11 ° 52' 48.2"  E