Orto Botanico

The story

The Orto Botanico opened at the end of the 18th century beside Villa Giulia, as the university’s teaching garden. The monumental entrance — the Gymnasium, with the Tepidarium and Calidarium on either side — was designed by the French architect Léon Dufourny in neoclassical style, and dates from 1789–1792.

The climate did the rest: tropical and subtropical species from all over the world were acclimatised here, and many plants now common in Sicily entered Europe through this garden.

It is still a university garden, not an ornamental park.

Why it is worth it

It is the coolest place in the centre. You walk under an enormous Ficus macrophylla whose aerial roots have become trunks, past water-lily tanks, banana trees, papyrus and rows of citrus labelled one by one. An unhurried visit takes an hour and a half, and you leave with a physical sense of how far south Palermo is.