Founded in 1545 for the cultivation of medicinal plants for the university's medical faculty, the Orto Botanico is the oldest academic botanical garden in the world still on its original site. UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage list in 1997. The original circular walled enclosure, divided into geometric beds by the four cardinal points, survives essentially unchanged.
The collection focuses on plants of historical, scientific, or pharmacological interest. Highlights include Goethe's palm, a Mediterranean fan palm planted in 1585 and described by Goethe after his visit in 1786; a modern Biodiversity Garden housed in a startling glass biotope building that recreates four ecosystems under one roof; and the original collection of medicinal plants set out as a living textbook of botany. Open year-round; allow an hour and a half.