Padua Botanical Gardens: five hundred years of university research and teaching.

Orto Botanico

The Botanic Gardens of the University of Padua was founded as medicinal garden alongside the dreaming spires of the University, to grow native and exotic plants for scientific and teaching purposes.
When they were founded the Gardens were used exclusively for medicinal plants, which at the time was the main therapeutic resource used. Almost all medicines were made from herbs. There was still, however, much uncertainty about the identification of many of the plants listed by the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Arabs. Therefore there was much bona fide error, many snake oil doctors, and often wrong, useless, and sometimes harmful plants were used.
The medicinal garden was not only a quantum leap in teaching terms (allowing students of medicine to examine plants from close up, so they could identify proper drugs and not be taken in by fakes), and was also the start of experimentation in the botanical field.
Padua’s Garden, from the 16th century onwards, has had a profound effect on science, both in Italy and Europe. For the many overseas students either studying medicine at Padua or passing through the town, the Gardens were an inspiration they would follow later when they returned home. For this reason, the Gardens in Padua have often been called “the mother” of all others throughout the world.

Basilica di S. Antonio

Many of the botanists who took over as Prefects of the Garden were to become extremely famous. They enjoyed the admiration of others for their erudition, so much so that many species of plants – and even genii – were dedicated to them.
Padua has the oldest Botanical Gardens – still to be found in its original location and with its original layout – in the world. It has also maintained its original function as a centre for scientific research and teaching tool, and has continuously adapted these functions to the changing requirements of science, especially botany.
Since its foundation, Padua’s Botanic Gardens have been the hub of a network of international relations, and have seen exchanges of plants, seeds, and all types of scientific material. The Gardens became an important centre for study and research, at the cutting edge in the cultivation and acclimation of exotic plants. So it was that in Padua, for the first time in Italy – and often in Europe – many exotic plants were grown for the first time, which were later to become widespread, either because they were so popular (lilacs, hyacinths, jasmines, freesias, etc.), or because they started to grow spontaneously in Italy (American aloe, false-acacia, tree of heaven). This tradition in introducing exotic species and exchanging plants with other countries has never stopped, and nowadays the Gardens still exchange seeds with more than eight hundred scientific institutions throughout the world.

History, art and culture

Palazzo della Ragione

Situated in the geographical centre of Venetia region, Padua is one of the most culturally and economically alive and dynamic cities in the region.
Because of its centrality and the many rivers flowing through it, the area around Padua has been inhabited since the earliest times. In the 9th century BC, it became the cradle of early Venetia civilisation, and was one of the most important Roman cities in Roman Cisalpine Gaul.

Prato della Valle

It was, however, in the Middle Ages that development Padua and the surrounding area took place, both in territorial and economic terms. In the 13th century, when the powerful Commune of Padua dominated the area, the layout of the city was fixed, and a new age literally began. It was then that the city lived through its most important events: the foundation of the University, the building of the first Walls and the Palazzo della Ragione, Giotto’s frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel in the early 12th century, and the flourishing of such personalities as Pietro d’Abano, lecturer in medicine, philosophy, and science at the Sorbonne, Albertino Mussato, Marsilio da Padova, Lovato dei Lovati, etc.
The 12th century was Padua’s siècle d’or, thanks partly to the enlightened rule of the Carrara dynasty. They it was who determined the fantastic artistic and cultural life (Giusto de’ Menabuoi, Jacopo d’Avanzo, Altichiero, Petrarch, etc.), and Padua’s political and military power throughout central Venetia. It is from this area that countless Castles can be traced back, as also the final layout of the many walled cities, still to be seen to the north and south of Padua. They are the consequence of bitter feuds and land claims between the Carrara dynasty, the Visconti and Della Scala families, and the Republic of Venice.

Basilica di Santa Giustina

After a long siege, the Duke and his son went to Venice, to obtain favourable conditions of peace, but were detained and put to death (1405); the rule of the Carrara dynasty thus came to an end, and Padua fell to Venice. Thenceforth Padua followed the fortunes of Venice. Under Venetian rule, the very look of Padua changed, with the building of new walls and countless stately homes, government buildings in the Piazza dei Signori, and a new organisation for the various University buildings (Palazzo Bò, Botanical Gardens, Observatory, etc.). The University’s prestige can be seen in names such as those of Copernicus, Galileo, G. F. d’Acquapendente, Poleni, G. B. Morgagni, etc.

In the field of arts, Padua’s primacy was guaranteed throughout the 16th century by the works of di Donatello and Briosco, Squarcione and Mantegna, D. Campagnola and T. Aspetti, etc.
Venetian contributions came to an end in 1775 with the highly theatrical arrangement of the Prato della Valle, one of the largest squares in Europe.
Venetian noblemen must also be thanked for the countless villas and parks they built throughout the province, where the most famous architects, painters, and sculptors of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries worked (Palladium, Sansovino, Falconetto, Canova, Bonazza, Tiepolo, etc.), and which in many cases became the most flourishing artistic salons of the day for Venetian thinkers and writers (Ruzante, Goldoni, Gozzi).
The buildings in Padua which absolutely cannot be missed are the following: the Scrovegni Chapel, with the marvellous series of frescoes by Giotto, the 11th-century Palazzo della Ragione with its Salon, one of the largest hanging salons in the world, decorated with a cycle of 333 frescoes; the Cathedral, where Michelangelo worked and the nearby Baptistery, with frescoes by Florentine painter Giusto de’ Menabuoi; Palazzo del Bo, the central University building with the Anatomical Theatre, the Hall of the Forty, were Galileo’s chair is kept, and the Great Hall with its countless coats-of-arms of rectors and professors; the Basilica of St Anthony of Padua, on the pilgrim route of most of the world, containing priceless works of art and frescoes, painted between the 14th century and the modern day, the University Botanical Gardens, founded in 1545, the oldest in the world; the Prato della Valle, one of the biggest squares in Europe, the Church of Santa Giustina, rebuilt in 1502, crowned by eight cupolas, and with fourteen side chapels; there are paintings by Paolo Veronese, Luca Giordano, and Parodio. In addition to the relics of St Justina and St Luke, Evangelist, there is also the Chapel of St Prosdocimus, an example of early Christian art.

UNESCO INSCRIPTION

Padua Botanical Garden
Id N° 824 1997 C (ii) (iii)

In consideration of the outstanding cultural activities it had carried out for almost 500 years, Padua Botanical Garden was inscribed in the UNESCO list of world heritage centres, owing to the fact that it has borne witness to a notable exchange of influence in the field of botanical culture, and is a unique example – or at least an exceptional one – of a cultural tradition going back several centuries. This is explained in the motivation:
the Committee has decided to inscribe this place under criteria C (ii) and (iii).
“Padua Botanical Gardens are the starting point for all botanical gardens throughout the world, and are the cradle of botanical science, scientific exchanges, and of the understanding of the relationship between nature and culture. They have contributed in large measure to progress in countless modern sciences, especially botanic studies, medicine, chemistry, ecology, and pharmacy.”