Hortus Botanicus

Hortus Botanicus is a botanical garden in Amsterdam, founded in 1638 as the Hortus Medicus. Today, its collection holds more than 6,000 trees and plants, including rare, endangered, and centuries-old specimens. A large hothouse creates three tropical climates, while a butterfly greenhouse fills another space with hundreds of flying butterflies.

Doctors and apothecaries once cultivated medicinal plants here, and students even took their examinations among them. In 1646, director Johannes Snippendaal counted 796 species, mostly medicinal plants, within these grounds. The Snippendaal Garden still preserves many plants associated with that seventeenth-century collection. Historic features include a hexagonal pavilion, an early eighteenth-century entrance gate, and the 1875 Orangery. The Palm House and Hugo de Vries Laboratory reflect the Amsterdam School style of the early twentieth century.

In 1987, supporters prevented closure after the University of Amsterdam ended its funding. A single coffee plant is said to have fathered coffee cultivation across Central and South America. Two oil palms from Mauritius likewise sent seeds across Southeast Asia, leaving an economic legacy far beyond Amsterdam.