Behind the Hortus Botanicus’s gates, plant collections connect a seventeenth-century medicinal herb garden with today’s botanical science. Look up at the Palm House’s glass and iron before following the garden beds.
Guide preview
The Palm House’s glass roof turns the building itself into a tool for growing plants. The Hortus began in 1638 as the Hortus Medicus, a garden of medicinal herbs where physicians and apothecaries studied plants used in remedies. In 1646, prefect Johannes Snippendaal catalogued 796 species.
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- The Hortus was founded in 1638 as a medicinal garden.
- Johannes Snippendaal catalogued 796 plant species in 1646.
- The Palm House was designed in 1911 and built in 1912.
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