ORTO BOTANICO DELL’UNIVERSITÀ DI PAVIA

The Botanical Garden of the University of Pavia, founded in 1773 in the context of the Teresian and Giuseppeppine reforms of the University, represents a historical and scientific heritage of extraordinary value. Over time it has hosted the activities of famous botanists, including Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, to whom we owe the original layout. Of this first nucleus, the monumental Platanus hispanicaabout 50 metres high, and the old greenhouses designed by Giuseppe Piermarini, divided into two wings housing collections of cycads and succulent plants.

In front of the Greenhouses are the beds with medicinal plants and experimental cultivations. Next to it are the 19th-century greenhouse designed by Giovanni Briosi, dedicated to useful exotic plants, and the Tropical Greenhouse built by Ruggero Tomaselli in the 1970s, which houses species from equatorial zones. Also from the same period is the Orchid Greenhouse, located in the southern portion of the garden, next to the Rose Garden, where wild roses, old varieties and modern hybrids can be admired.

The Arboretum of gymnosperms, the Arboretum of angiosperms, and a pool with aquatic and marsh plants from the Po Valley complete the tour. On the north side of the building is the Tea Garden, where shrubs of Camellia sinensis ticinensis', next to the trays that hold the rare Isoëtes malinvernianaa fern endemic to the Lomellina and Vercellese areas.

The self-guided tour has been enriched with signage for the youngest visitors, a web app for a botanical treasure hunt and an in-depth look at the local avifauna, made accessible through wooden templates depicting the bird species present in the Garden, which can be observed or heard throughout the year.