Padua's botanical garden: 1545, 3.5 hectares, 10 am

The botanical garden of the University of Padua was founded in 1545¹ and is the oldest university botanical garden in the world still on its original site; it opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 7 pm.

Founded in 1545 for medical students

The university laid out the garden in 1545¹ so that its students could study medicinal plants from life rather than from drawings.

The claim it carries is precise: the oldest university botanical garden in the world still in its original location. Not the oldest garden, and not the oldest collection. The same site, used for the same purpose, for close to five centuries.

It has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1997, and it still belongs to the University of Padua.

10 am to 7 pm, last entry at 6:15 pm

The garden opens Tuesday to Sunday and on public holidays from 10 am to 7 pm, with last entry at 6:15 pm (18:15 on the gate), and it's closed on Mondays that aren't holidays.

A Monday that falls on a public holiday is an open day, so check the calendar before you write off a Monday in Padua.

3,500 species on 3.5 hectares

3,500¹ plant species grow on 3.5 hectares, split into five sections: the Renaissance garden of simples, the Biodiversity Garden, the Botanical Museum, the arboretum and the 19th-century greenhouses.

The garden of simples is the 1545¹ core, laid out for teaching. The Biodiversity Garden and the greenhouses are where the modern collection lives.

No ticket price is published here

No ticket price is published on this page, because the garden's price list couldn't be read on the official site when the facts were collected: the ticket page redirected, and the site's security certificate was expired on one attempt.

A figure does circulate online, but only from editorial sources, and it isn't repeated here. Check ortobotanicopd.it before you go.

Padua's second listing: 8 fresco sites

Since 2021 Padua has a second UNESCO site, Padova Urbs picta: eight separate religious and civic buildings with fresco cycles painted between 1302² and 1397².

They are the Scrovegni Chapel, the Eremitani church, Palazzo della Ragione, the chapel of the Carrara palace, the cathedral baptistery, the basilica and convent of the Santo, the Oratory of San Giorgio and the Oratory of San Michele.

The painters were Giotto, Guariento di Arpo, Giusto de' Menabuoi, Altichiero da Zevio, Jacopo Avanzi and Jacopo da Verona.

Two listings, 24 years apart, one city

Padua's two UNESCO sites were inscribed in 1997 and 2021, and they ask for very different days: one garden with one gate, against eight buildings with eight ticket offices.

Put the garden in the morning, when it opens at 10 am, and leave the fresco cycles for when you know which of the eight you want to see.

For the region's other sites, see UNESCO sites in the Veneto, the Palladian villas and the Veneto.

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