While visiting family in Trieste, Italy, my daughter Tasia and I took a weekend getaway to Padua (spelled Padova in Italy) and Venice. After a leisurely 2-hour drive, we strolled along the cobbled walkways in Padua where the purveyors of local produce, plants, clothes and accessories displayed their goods at the open air market shaded by the majestic, 13th century Basilica of St. Anthony. Just steps away from the Basilica of St. Anthony is the Prato della Valle, the largest square in Italy, a huge space with a grassy, green island at the center surrounded by a canal and ringed by statues. Past the Prato della Valle, we came upon two ancient magnolia trees, stately sentries guarding the entrance of the famous Botanical Garden of Padua.
Established in 1545, it is the oldest continuously running botanic garden to have remained on its original site and to have retained its initial layout. Created by the Senate of the Venetian Republic, it became the center for medical studies and botanical research. The initial purpose was to grow medicinal plants or “Orto dei semplici” (the simple plants) known to produce natural remedies and to help students differentiate plants with true medicinal value from false ones.
It was designed as a circular area enclosed by a square and divided into four quadrants of planting beds. To prevent the theft of these rare plants, the garden was enclosed by a circular wall in 1552. In time, many fountains and ponds were built to provide irrigation, more classrooms were added, brick greenhouses were constructed and the plant collections were expanded to include non-medicinal species from all over the world, particularly from countries that traded with Venice.
Affiliated with the University of Padua, the garden introduced and studied exotic plants and continues to conduct research on its grounds and preserve many rare species. In 1997, UNESCO listed the Botanical Garden of Padua as a World Heritage Site because it “…is the original of all botanical gardens throughout the world, and represents the birth of science, of scientific exchanges, and understanding of the relationship between nature and culture. It has made a profound contribution to the development of many modern scientific disciplines, notable botany, medicine, chemistry, ecology and pharmacy.”
Among the garden’s many plants of historical importance is “Goethe’s palm” (read this week’s “Did You Know?”), a palm planted in 1585 and housed in a greenhouse as well as a gigantic plane tree from 1680 still surviving despite being struck by lightening that hollowed out its trunk. In some of the hothouses are carnivorous and tropical plants, but most of the plant collections are outdoors, about 6,000, located in the four largest central flowerbeds including:- Medicinal and Poisonous Plants
- Plants from the Euganean Hills and Triveneto Region
- Plants in Danger of Extinction
- Aquatic Plants
- Alpine Plants
- Mediterranean Plants
If you have the opportunity to take the road less traveled on your way to or from Venice, be sure to visit Padua. It is a very special place that will transport you back in time and allow you to step into botanical history. As for Venice, aaah Venice, I will save that for another story.
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