The Botanical Garden
of Naples is another of the "green lungs" in the
city—those welcome, large patches of vegetation that
help the city breathe in the midst of asphalt and
traffic. (Others are the Villa
Comunale, the Floridiana, and
the Vineyard of San
Garden in Naples takes up about 30 acres and is
located on via Foria, adjacent to the gigantic old Albergo dei Poveri,
the poorhouse, and is part of the University of
Naples Department of Natural Science. It is one of
the many scientific and educational facilities
instituted under French rule in
Naples (1806-15). (Another was the observatory.) The Garden
opened in 1810 and had a single director for the
next 50 years.
At present the Garden displays
on the premises around 25,000 samples of vegetation,
covering about 10,000 plant species. Although open
to the public, the Orto Botanico is not,
strictly speaking, a public park. It is really an
educational facility for the university and local
high schools and is separate from the agricultural
department of the University of Naples (on the
grounds of the old Royal
Palace in Portici). The Garden is also
actively engaged in the preservation of some
endangered plant species.
There is also an
ethnobotany section of the Garden where plants are
studied that are potentially useful medicinally to
humans. Besides smaller structures on the premises,
there are two larger ones: the 17th-century "castle"
(image, below left) recently restored, and
the 5,000 sq. meter Merola Greenhouse.
The castle contains lecture and
display rooms, and houses the ethnobotany section as
well as the fascinating section on paleobotany,
displaying the evolution of plant life throughout
the history of our planet.
photo (top) and photo directly
above this credit line courtesy of
and by Fulvio De Marinis.