Botanical Garden of Parma, Botanical garden in Parma, Italy.
The Botanical Garden is a garden in central Parma with Italian design principles and varied plant collections displayed across its grounds. Specialized greenhouses allow visitors to see alpine, tropical, and subtropical species throughout the year.
The original "Giardino dei Semplici" was created in 1630 by Enrico Velario di Brabantia at the wish of Duke Ranuccio I Farnese, linked to the Faculty of Medicine and devoted to medicinal plants. In 1770 Abbot Giambattista Guatteri, called to Parma by minister Guillaume du Tillot, refounded the garden on its present site, a former dye works. Its neoclassical glass houses, rebuilt by court architect Ennemond Alexandre Petitot from 1777, were finished in 1793.
The garden's name changed from "Giardino dei Semplici" to "Orto Botanico" after Giambattista Guatteri refounded it in 1770. The neoclassical Scuola di Botanica still keeps five 1722 herbarium fascicles written by the physician Giovanni Battista Casapini, along with herbaria and instruments of directors such as Guatteri, Giorgio Jan and Giovanni Passerini.
The garden lies at the edge of Parma's historic centre, at strada Farini 90 on the corner with stradone Martiri della Libertà, and is open daily without charge. Paths of gravel and box hedges make it easy to explore on foot; the Petitot glasshouses shelter the tropical and desert collections in any season.
An eastern section holds a rare tree collection established between the 1700s and 1800s. This area displays species from different parts of the world that have grown here for generations.
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