The Porto Botanical Garden () is a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

located in the gardens of the Campo Alegre Estate or Andresen House, in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

History

Campo Alegre Estate previously belonged to the French physician Jean Pierre Salabert. It was confiscated in 1820, later became the property of John José da Costa and Arnaldo Ribeiro Barbosa. In 1895, João Henrique Andresen purchased the Campo Alegre Estate. This

Port wine Port wine (also known as vinho do Porto, , or simply port) is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, semi- ...

dealer would later recuperate the gardens of the estate, imposing the romantic style that was popular at that time. Two members of the Andresen family would later become famous writers:

Sophia de Mello Breyner Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (6 November 1919 – 2 July 2004) was a Portuguese poet and writer. Her remains have been entombed in the National Pantheon since 2014. Life and career Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen was born on 6 November ...

and Ruben A., who lived in the estate and whose memories provide an historic record of the evolution of the gardens. The Portuguese state acquired the estate in 1949, converting it in 1951 in the Porto Botanical Garden. Since then, it has been managed by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and by the Gonçalo Sampaio Botanical Institute (which was later extinguished). The current head of the Botanical Garden is the landscape architect Teresa Andresen, a descendant of the former owners of the estate, with Professors

Arnaldo Rozeira Arnaldo Deodato da Fonseca Rozeira (São Tomé and Príncipe, 29 April 1912 — Lordelo do Ouro, 8 March 1984), also known as Arnaldo Rozeira or Arnaldo Roseira, was a botanist, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto between A ...

, Roberto Salema and Barreto Caldas da Costa preceding her. Following the construction of roads and a university sports center, the property later lost 8 of its 12 hectares. In compensation, the Burmester Estate garden, with 1,8 hectares, is added to the Botanical Gardens.

Composition

The Botanical Garden currently includes: * The Andresen and Salabert houses, * An historical garden with three distinct parts (the Rose Garden, the J Letter Garden and the Fish Garden), separated by ''

Camellia japonica ''Camellia japonica'', known as common camellia, or Japanese camellia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae. There are thousands of cultivars of ''C. japonica'' in cultivation, with many colors and forms of flowers. In the U.S. ...

'' hedges, * Two ponds, one of which with waterlilies, * Greenhouses, including one dedicated to cacti and other succulent plants and another to tropical plants, * A cacti and succulent plant collection, featuring many ''

Opuntia ''Opuntia'', commonly called prickly pear or pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae. Prickly pears are also known as ''tuna'' (fruit), ''sabra'', ''nopal'' (paddle, plural ''nopales'') from the Nahuatl word f ...

'', ''

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to t ...

'', ''

Agave ''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some ''Agave'' species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known for ...

'' and ''

Aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most wid ...

'' species, * An arboretum, including a conifer collection, several centenary trees and a specimen of ''

Ginkgo biloba ''Ginkgo biloba'', commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( ), also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of tree native to China. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossils ...

'' planted by

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jardim Botanico do Porto Botanical gardens in Portugal University of Porto