Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam

Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam is just one of Netherlands’s botanical gardens, but it is also one of the oldest in the world and certainly the oldest one in Holland. Created in 1638 to be a garden for growing medical herbs, Hortus Botanicus has already accumulated more than 350 years of history. At the time the garden was established, herbs were more than respected in Amsterdam, as the city had just been through a plague epidemic. Moreover, the garden was used as a training ground for young pharmacists and physicians, not only as a plant bank. Over the course of time, especially in the 17th and 18th Centuries, the plant collection has been enriched with new species from arriving ships. These ships brought not only herbs and spices, but also exotic plants. Nowadays, the Hortus plays a huge role in the preservation of many plant species and serves as a gene bank for original plant types.

The Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus features a rich collection (about 4,000) of flora species, despite its modest size of 1.2 hectares. The seven greenhouses hold seven climate types in which the respective plants can live. One of the garden’s most adorable places is the special three-climate glasshouse containing sections with tropical, subtropical and desert plants. Visitors who choose to take a look at the tropical climate section will find themselves in a small jungle where the only thing that’s missing are the tigers. The three-climate greenhouse is a state-of-the-art structure where every single weather element is controlled by a computer.

A huge assembly of palm trees is collected on the Hortus’s premises, including examples of the famous cycads in the imposing Victorian-style Palm House. This greenhouse was built at the beginning of the 19th Century at the will of a renowned professor named De Vries, who threatened to leave for the USA if some of his desires weren’t fulfilled by Amsterdam’s authorities. Hortus Botanicus is home to a collection of 50 large and exotic trees, such as the 150 year old Indian Bean or the huge Turkish Hazel. Visitors are presented the opportunity to take a tour and see the most interesting exhibits. The Butterfly Greenhouse (also known as the Educational House) is inhabited by both butterflies and plants used in the farming of distant countries, like the cocoa tree.

What can be said about the Hortus’s architecture and overall design is that it has preserved its original building, but the outside garden hasn’t kept its initial appearance. Back in 1682, the herbs were organised into straight flowerbeds and the exotic plants were shaped in symmetrical arches. The modern lookout of this garden was created in 1863 under the influence of the Romantic philosophical school, which dictated serpentine alleys to suggest escape from the reality of the surrounding city. In the Hortus, there’s a structure named the Semicircle where the plants are arranged by proximity of their genetic material – the closer they are in the genetic chain, the closer they’re ordered in the Semicircle. Thus a kind of live systematic table is shown, which proves very useful for educational purposes. Finally, the old Orangery has been remodelled into a modern café, offering a relaxing atmosphere after seeing so much beauty.