Botanical Garden and Herbarium

Why is it significant?

Pass through the gates of number 42 Via Irnerio into the tranquil, emerald oasis of the University of Bologna Botanical Garden and Herbarium.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Pass through the gates of number 42 Via Irnerio into the tranquil, emerald oasis of the University of Bologna Botanical Garden and Herbarium. Founded in 1568 by the great Renaissance naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, this botanical sanctuary is one of the oldest in the world, established as a garden of medicinal simples to instruct medical students in identifying therapeutic plants. Originally situated in the courtyards of Palazzo d'Accursio, the botanical collection was relocated to its present two-hectare park in 1803 under the Napoleonic administration. Shaded gravel pathways wind beneath majestic centenary plane trees, ginkgo biloba specimens, and towering redwoods, creating an idyllic environment where academic research blends harmoniously with public peace. The garden is divided into thematic botanical sectors, including medicinal herbs, carnivorous plants, and succulent collections that thrive in historic nineteenth-century glasshouses. The fragrance of blooming jasmine and damp earth perfumes the air. Generations of university botany students have wandered through these serene arboretum paths, learning to classify rare therapeutic plants and preserving the pioneering experimental spirit of the Renaissance simple garden.

Step inside the heated Victorian glasshouses: here thrive exotic tropical ferns, giant Amazonian water lilies, and rare orchids that have been propagated through international academic plant exchanges for over two centuries. The adjacent University Herbarium preserves over one hundred and thirty thousand dried botanical specimens, including original sixteenth-century sheets bound by Aldrovandi himself with calligraphic Latin annotations.

Aldrovandi viewed botany as a vital clinical science: he insisted that physicians must directly examine living plant life in the garden to avoid fatal misidentifications between healing medicinal herbs and lethal poisons.

Pause beside the central stone fountain basin: its freshwater spring has continuously nourished the garden's aquatic plant collections since the early nineteenth century.

Exit onto Via Irnerio and walk east to the historic academic portal of Porta San Donato.