History
The Brera Botanical Garden is a romantic green oasis in the heart of Milan, located in the complex of the famous Palazzo Brera. It was a place for meditation and cultivation for the Humiliati monks as far back as the 14th century and for the Jesuits of Brera from the 16th century.
In 1774-1775 it was established as the Brera Botanical Garden, at the behest of Maria Theresa of Austria, and therefore celebrates, in 2025, its 250 years of history as a scientific institution.
The Garden has a long tradition in medicinal species for advanced training in pharmacy and medicine, extended over time to other disciplinary areas. In 1935 it was annexed to the University of Milan, which still manages it today and has made it a recognized museum with over 280,000 admissions every year. Since 2023, it has also associated the Herbarium Universitatis Mediolanensis, which has a rich heritage of historic herbaria, botanical wallcharts, xylotheques, ...
The Brera Botanical Garden reveals to the visitor its character as a historic garden, with its peculiar eighteenth-century layout, defined by a linear system of dense, long and narrow flowerbeds, two suggestive elliptical ponds and an arboretum.
The collections are among the richest in species of our flora and medicinal species from various families. Prominent use (food plants, textile and paper plants, dyeing plants) or particular environments (Mediterranean plants, arid, humid environments, ...) collections are also represented. The Garden preserves also rare species or species to be conserved for the protection of biodiversity, in particular Lombard indigenous plants. Among the large trees, the patriarchs stand out, two Ginkgo biloba that are two and a half centuries old, the symbol of the garden.
The Botanical Garden is a living open-air museum, which offers the public a constantly evolving aspect and a rich program of educational activities and events.
