Orto Botanico di Brera, Milan

Orto Botanico di Brera is a botanical garden tucked behind Palazzo Brera at Via Brera 28. Its compact grounds cover 5,000 m2 and preserve about 300 plant species. The garden began in 1774, when Maria Theresa of Austria ordered an existing Jesuit garden reshaped for students of medicine and pharmacology.

Look across the brick-edged rectangular beds: their layout belongs to the garden’s restored historic design. Elliptical ponds from the eighteenth century add another surviving feature, while a nineteenth-century greenhouse is now used by the Academy of Fine Arts. After a long period of neglect, the garden was restored in 1998.

Among the trees, you can find one of Europe’s oldest Ginkgo biloba specimens, alongside mature Firmiana, walnut, Pterocarya, and lime trees. This is a small garden with an unusually deep connection to teaching, restoration, and living collections.