Palermo Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden was founded in 1781 to complete the Chair of Botany of the Royal Academy.

The achievements are of exceptional importance at European level, both because of their historical value and because of their scientific and educational importance. The garden includes about ten thousand species, some even rare, belonging to about 250 families.

At the front along the road , the buildings for the study and conservation of plants and seeds were built, namely: the Gimnasium, the Library and the Herbaria.

The design of the buildings was entrusted to the French architect Leon Dufourny, who, influenced by the archaeological excavations visited in Sicily and by the neoclassical stylistic tendencies, introduced the neo-Grecist style and designed unitary buildings inspired by Greek architecture . The building was decorated in 1795 by Giuseppe Velasco.

The Calidarium and Tepidarium buildings were built between 1790 and 1797 by Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia, while the warehouse and caretaker's house were designed in 1838 by Carlo Giackery.

Furthermore, in the Botanical Garden you can admire: the Aquarium , consisting of three concentric circular basins with a rock in the middle with dolphins and marble ducks; the exotic forest with the papyrus tub; the bamboo forest; the Serra Maria Carolina, a cast iron and glass winter garden with a rectangular plan with a basin (from Paris), built in 1859 by Carlo Giackery, where exotic plants are collected.

Since July 11, 2020, the statue of the Genius of Palermo , created by the Sicilian artist Domenico Pellegrino with the support of the Tommaso Dragotto Foundation, has been placed in the tropical greenhouse of the Botanical Garden, in perfect harmony with the famous "Genius" created by Marabitti in 1778 and located in the nearby Villa Giulia.

Willem Vandenameele