Tropical Botanic Garden

Created in 1906 as the pedagogic branch of the old Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary, it was first called Colonial Garden. In 1912, it is transferred from Quinta das Laranjeiras to the courtyard of the Palace of Belém, given the need to expand the capacity. It occupies a place within the city that had previously belonged to the old gardens and villas of Portuguese nobility, from the 15th to the 18th centuries. From that memory, some buildings mark the garden’s surroundings, namely the Casa do Fresco and the Condes da Calheta Palace. Understood as an open air laboratory, it is a magnificent repository that develops and assures the maintenance of the collections of living plants from tropical and subtropical areas. Also worth mentioning are the impressive metallic structures that define the greenhouses and the Italian sculptures spread around the garden. It also gathers a remarkable artistic and cultural patrimony that encompasses several buildings and statues built for the Portuguese World Exhibition, which, in 1940, had an important activity hub there, called Colonial Section. In 2007, it was classified as National Monument and it is part of the Lisbon University since 2015, currently being co-managed by the National Museum of Natural History and Science and the Lisbon Botanic Garden.