A secret garden within the walls
Siena can surprise you even when you least expect it. Just turn into the right place, pass through a discreet gate, and the historic center gives way to something unexpected: trees, fragrances, silence. The Botanical Museum, with its Botanical Garden and Herbarium, is one of the most beautiful and lesser-known oases of the city, a green corner preserved within the medieval walls like a well-kept secret.
The roots of this place go back to the 16th century, when the Orto dei Semplici stood here: a pharmaceutical garden where healing and medicinal plants were cultivated for the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. Since then, the purpose of this space has never changed: to preserve, to study, to amaze.
The Botanical Garden
Since 1856, covering an area of two and a half hectares, the Botanical Garden hosts over 2000 plant species: from the most familiar Mediterranean plants to those from exotic and tropical countries, in a path that combines 19th-century style with modern sensibility, featuring reconstructions of specific Tuscan habitats. Artificial terraces, gravel paths, stone staircases: a landscape that invites you to stroll slowly.
A journey through plant worlds
The path opens with the "School", an area dedicated to pharmaceutical and food plants, and develops through flowerbeds arranged according to botanical criteria. Then you encounter exotic trees and plants from Tuscany, divided by mountain, hill, and coastal zones.
The most evocative heart is that of the greenhouses: the Historic Greenhouse, with plants from tropical forests, the Tepidarium, with succulents and cacti from desert areas, and the Limonaia, a cold greenhouse that in winter houses citrus fruits, geraniums, and callas.
The last section is dedicated to local species: a rock garden, a fernery with pools of rare water lilies, an extraordinary collection of orchids in bloom between April and May, and finally the farm with Chianti grapevines, olive trees, and fruit species from Tuscan tradition. Along the path, you also encounter the Fonte al Pino, an ancient element that adds poetry to the landscape.
The Herbarium
Accessible to scholars by reservation, the Herbarium Universitatis Senensis preserves over 100,000 dried plant specimens and other collections of great scientific and historical value. A silent archive that also safeguards extinct species due to pollution: a botanical memory of the world that was, precious yet fragile.
Come and discover it
The Botanical Museum is perfect for nature lovers, for families with children, and for anyone who wants to enjoy a refreshing break away from traffic and crowds.
Near Piazzetta Silvio Gigli, Siena, close to the Natural History Museum.
