Partners: Gardens

Botanical Garden of the University of Würzburg

The University of Würzburg has had a botanical garden since 1696 . It emerged from the medicinal plant garden (Hortus medicus) of the Juliusspital in today’s city center and is now, after its third relocation, on the southern outskirts of the city. In 1960 work began on the new system on the Mittlerer Dallenbergweg. The Botanical Garden is a central institution of the University of Würzburg. It serves various sub-disciplines of botany and other university institutions as an important aid in research and teaching. It is open to the public.

Les Jardins du château de Schwetzingen

The park of Schwetzingen Castle is a unique cultural monument in Europe: more than 100 sculptures adorn the park, which is both magnificent and surprising. Picturesque works of art lead visitors into distant and foreign worlds. The Temple of Apollo features the Greek god of light and the arts playing the lyre in a circular temple. Also worth seeing: the thermal baths, a small building for relaxation with a garden, designed on the plan of an Italian villa. The park’s Turkish garden houses the Nicholas de Pigage mosque, the largest building of its type in a German park. This late-baroque mosque, with many oriental elements, however, played a purely decorative and not religious role.

Sanssouci Park

Visitors can wander through the changing styles of exquisite garden art. The aesthetics and philosophy of the former residents of these palace complexes can be discovered in the perfectly formed garden areas, architecture, water features or in the more than 1,000 sculptures. The approximately 300-hectare Sanssouci Park stretches more than two kilometers from east to west. You should allow time for a detailed tour. Almost 60 gardeners lovingly tend beds, hedges, trees and extensive meadows. The magnificent parterre at the foot of Sanssouci Palace is decorated twice a year with over 230,000 plants based on historical models.

Wilhelma Zoo and Botanical Garden

Numerous animals and plants worldwide are increasingly threatened . Their natural habitats are being pushed back as forests have to make way for arable land and road construction. Poaching and illegal hunting are also decimating the natural population of many species. Together with our visitors, we are committed to projects worldwide.

Nymphenburg Botanical Garden in Munich

Around 19,600 species and subspecies are cultivated in the Munich-Nymphenburg Botanical Garden, which covers an area of 21.2 hectares. Together with the outstation, the alpine garden on the Schachen (1,860 m²), the botanical garden is involved in national and international research projects, to which it supplies important material and observation data. It has the task of collecting, examining, cultivating and exhibiting wild and cultivated plants from all over the world and thus from different climatic regions according to scientific criteria. His collection of living plants is also used for research, for which the demand from all over the world is constantly increasing.

Heidelberg Botanical Garden

Founded in 1593, the Heidelberg Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical gardens of all: important scientific work by Heidelberg botanists is inextricably linked to it, and its research and conservation collections are world-famous. There is also a herbarium with around 350,000 specimens.

Botanischer Garten Frankfurt

The future of the botanical garden and the possibilities of its preservation were discussed as early as the 1990s, with the planning of the complete relocation of the biological institutes to the Riedberg. Due to the physical distance, it could only be used to a limited extent for teaching and research at the university. However, the garden at this location had developed into a cultural asset worth preserving in the more than 50 years of development – with a valuable inventory of tree species and other plants from all over the world (over 5,000 species).

Botanical Garden of TU Dresden

In the heart of the city, the Dresden Botanical Garden invites you to explore the fascinating world of plants. About 10.000 plant species grow at the terrain at the edge of the Großer Garten, the biggest and oldest park in the city-centre. The origin of the plant collection dates back to the year 1815. Today, the Botanical Garden Dresden is a central academic unit of Technische Universität Dresden and as such is integrated into research and academic education in numerous ways. Moreover, we offer various possibilities for the public and school classes to learn more about plants.

Universitat Bonn Botanical Gardens

In addition to large research collections of titan arums, carnivorous plants, impatiens and flower nettles, remarkable special collections of Proteaceae and Vellociaceae, geophytes from Europe and Anatolia, as well as useful plants from all over the world have been brought together at Bonn University Botanic Gardens.

Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin

The Botanic Garden is a magical place that speaks to all your senses. Plunge in this green oasis, relax at the lakeside, walk along picturesque trails – in our Garden nature always has a season. Our Botanic Garden counts as one of the largest and most important botanical gardens in the world. This is not only due to its surface, but also to the variety of its plants, that count over 20,000 types.

Bucaco National Forest

The National Forest of Bussaco is a heritage of incalculable value, unique in Portugal and in the world. It currently occupies 105 hectares and has one of the best dendrological collections in Europe, with around 250 species of trees and shrubs with notable specimens. It is one of the richest national forests in natural, architectural and cultural heritage, and can be divided into three landscape units: Arboretum, Gardens and Vale dos Fetos and Relic Forest. Classified as a Property of Public Interest, the monumental complex of Bussaco mobilizes an exceptional heritage wealth. In addition to the central nucleus formed by the Palace Hotel do Bussaco and the Convent of Santa Cruz, the hermitages, the chapels of devotion and the Steps that make up the Via Sacra, the Fence with the Doors, the Military Museum and the commemorative monument of the Batalha do Bussaco, the crosses, the fountains (the Fonte Fria with its monumental staircase stands out) and the cisterns, the viewpoints (the one at Cruz Alta offers a privileged view over the entire region between Coimbra and Serra do Caramulo) or the forest houses.

Quinta da Regaleira Palace Gardens

Sintra was, in the 19th century, one of the first cradles of romantic architecture in Europe. Its unique climate and consequent nature attracted the gaze of those who, touched by the landscape, dared to retouch it with stunning architecture in Edenic harmony, conducive to the contemplation of Beauty and the Sublime.

Les Jardins du palais du Marquis de Fronteira (Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira)

The Foundation of the Houses of Fonteira and Alorna, was established by Dom Fernando Mascarenhas (1945-2014), who was the representative of three important noble Houses (Fronteira, Alorna e Távora). Dom Fernando Mascarenhas inherited the Condado of Torre and the Fronteira Palace from a great-great Aunt. Since he had no children, he decided to use this unique opportunity to reinforce the connection between his heritage and the family who is historically linked to it, while keeping in mind the public good.

Faial Botanical Garden

Open to the public since 1986, the Botanical Garden of Faial consists of the altitude pole, in Pedro Miguel, and the central pole, in the parish of Flamengos, where the Seed Bank of the Azores is located. Its mission concerns the conservation and study of the natural flora of the Azores, scientific dissemination and environmental education. The Botanical Garden was distinguished, in 2011, by Turismo de Portugal with an honorable mention in the “Requalification of public project” award.

Lisbon Botanical Garden

The Lisbon Botanical Garden (JBL) is classified as a national monument and is part of the historical centre of the Portuguese capital. Its 4 hectares are a treasure trove of plant specimens from different parts of the world, featuring cycads, gymnosperms, palm trees, tropical fig trees, and much much more. In terms of heritage, JBL is home to collections of natural objects, a xylotheque, a herbarium with more than 220,000 leaves, and also includes a seed bank with over 1200 species as well as a DNA bank with 1 to 5 samples of each endangered Portuguese flora species. In JBL you can also visit the Butterfly Garden, the first greenhouse made for breeding butterflies of the Iberian fauna.

Lanzarote Cactus Garden

Located in Guatiza, municipality of Teguise, El Jardín de Cactus is the last great work of César Manrique in Lanzarote , a fascinating creation that houses around 4,500 specimens of cacti of some 500 species from the five continents. The artist chose an old rofera (canteen, for the Canaries) used as a dump in an agricultural area with extensive prickly pear plantations dedicated to the cultivation of cochineal, thus assuming the rehabilitation of an area of great scenic value on the island in a state of abandonment. After 20 years of creation, the work gives life to an architecture full of decorative and sculptural elements that integrate with the environment, further enhancing its natural beauty. The presence of volcanic stone and basaltic monoliths turned into sculptures stands out, resulting from the time when earth was extracted; but it is the liveliness and exoticism of the cactus that intoxicates the visitor in an authentic poetic setting of shapes, textures and colors.

Pazo de Oca

The Ducal House of Medinaceli Foundation is a private cultural institution established on the initiative of Her Grace Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdoba y Fernández de Henestrosa, the Duchess of Medinaceli, with the aim of conserving, restoring, reintegrating, studying, promoting and disseminating the historic assets, both tangible (immovable, movable and documentary) and intangible (traditions, cults, rituals.), that have come to be linked to the House over time. Initially endowed with the founder’ s historic heritage-which was donated at the time of its establishment-throughout its over twenty-five years of existence it has grown both through the acquisition of property with historical ties to the House of Medinaceli and through mergers with other foundations of which the Ducal House held the trusteeship. The Foundation currently manages historic and artistic property scattered across nearly all the Spanish regions.

Palacio de Galiana Gardens

The Galiana Palace is an almunia or recreational palace that was built by the Taifa king, Al-Mamún, in the 11th century. It was built on the outskirts of the city and on the banks of the Tagus, since they provided the necessary water for the care of its legendary orchards and gardens.

Escorial Monastery Gardens

The gardens extend into the monastery’s main cloister, or Patio de Los Evangelistas, as well as the southern and eastern forecourts. Due to their location, they are protected and enjoy the best hours of sunshine, making them a perfect place for a pleasant walk, even in the middle of winter. Philip II, a great lover of gardens,…

Horta Labyrinth Park

All doubt is a labyrinth. Decisions, hypotheses, theories are ways to find solutions and each shortcut opens a new point of view. Think about that as you try to untangle the park’s vegetal maze of broad, tame cypress walls. If when you get to the center you can’t find the heart that the park stole from you, ask Eros where you can get it back. His sculpture is in the middle of the labyrinth. Again located in the world, let’s face the second challenge: Is it a neoclassical garden or a romantic garden?

Alfabia Gardens

Visiting the Alfabia Gardens in Majorca is one of the best cultural activities that can be done in the Balearic Islands. It is about wonderful gardens and a house that contain valuable historical elements. The gardens, wisely integrated into their natural environment, the variety of styles has not been an amalgamation, but rather a harmony that is difficult to achieve. In front of the main façade, the palm trees stand solemn and majestic, indifferent to the passage of time.

Albarda Garden

In addition to its botanical biodiversity, L’Albarda has a formal garden, orchards and wild gardens. These recreate the ancient Renaissance gardens of Valencia which were widely influenced by Arab culture. As in Renaissance gardens, architectural features have a great importance in L’Albarda; visitors will be transported to ancient times as they wander the walkways, pergolas and areas of outstanding natural beauty. In addition to its botanical biodiversity, L’Albarda has a formal garden, orchards and wild gardens. These recreate the ancient Renaissance gardens of Valencia which were widely influenced by Arab culture. As in Renaissance gardens, architectural features have a great importance in L’Albarda; visitors will be transported to ancient times as they wander the walkways, pergolas and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

Jardín Botánico de la Universidad de Coímbra (Jardin botanique de l’Université de Coimbra)

Universidad de Coímbra Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, located in the heart of the city, has as missions research, conservation of biodiversity, education and dissemination of science, with special focus on raising awareness of the importance of plant diversity, climate change and sustainable use of resources.
This living museum extends over almost 12 hectares, where diverse collections of plants, some of which are centuries old, transport us to different regions of the world.

Palmeto di Elche

The Palmeral de Elche is a unique cultural landscape, of outstanding value and universal significance, it is the heart, oriented towards intensive horticulture, of an irrigation system established by the founders of the Islamic city of Elche, a millennium ago. In this irrigated landscape of Andalusian origin, both traditional components and contemporary adaptations can be observed. A historic palm grove that has configured a unique urban landscape for more than a thousand years, declared a World Heritage Site in 2000.