Hortus botanicus Leiden

Hortus botanicus Leiden is the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands and one of the oldest in the world. It was established in 1590 and from the beginning of its existence it became a publicly accessible place, which in the 16th and 17th centuries was unusual in the world. Originally, it was a scientific base for the University of Leiden established in 1575.

The testimony of the centuries-old past of the garden are wonderful specimens of trees - today monuments of nature. Grow here, among others. Eighteenth-century ordinary gold cap, planted in 1601, and tulip tree, which came to the garden in 1716. All plants in the old part of the gardens have been planted and renewed for several hundred years according to the original layout, designed in the 16th century.

The pride of the garden is a special pavilion dedicated to the largest water lily in the world, called Victoria amazonica. Its floating round leaves reach a diameter of up to 3 m, and the leaf easily holds an adult on the water surface.