The History of Parma University Botanic Garden

University Botanic Garden was founded in 1770 under the guidance of the abbot Giambattista Guatteri, under the mandate of Duke Ferdinand I of Bourbon and thanks to the fundamental support of Sanvitale family. The choice of an experimental orientation of the naturalistic plant was due to Guatteri; this laid the foundations for a modern botany: live study, floristic survey of the territory, introduction of exotic plants and their acclimatization in the greenhouse, exchange of seeds with other gardens according to a practice still followed nowadays. Under Guatteri’s guidance, the Garden of Parma reached such a richness of species as to merit the consideration of the most illustrious botanists of the time.

The Botanic School was built in 1859 to replace the “fabbrica della calancà”, a cotton dyeing factory, that the founder of the garden Giambattista Guatteri used as a pot shelter during the cold season before the construction of the greenhouses. Built for educational purposes and for the conservation of seeds, the edifice now houses the museum and the book collections of the Botanic Garden, including historical herbaria.

This herbarium has been assembled by Duchess Albertina Sanvitale, daughter to Maria Luigia, Duchess of Parma. It is thought to have been finished by the time she was 11-13 years old. The various specimens have been collected during her travelling through Europe and Italy with her mother. It contains pieces of dried plants fastened onto double leaves with a thread; the notes are written in French and refer to the place of collection and also to monuments, streets and people. The collected specimens have been assembled in a refined way. Its relevance is considered more historical than scientific, more comparable to a travel diary, attesting the high aesthetic and cultural formation in the context of the court.

This huge general original herbarium has been assembled by the pharmacist Luigi Gardoni from 1836 to 1878. The herbarium consists of 268 cardboards and more than 10.000 sheets which contain specimens of dried plants. It also includes 447 carton boxes containing various kinds of vegetable products, advertising material, illustrations, parts of books, objects related to the uses of plants and several handwritten annotations. Scrolling through the manuscript you can feel the great commitment that he has put into this great work, offering a valuable snapshot of the pharmaceutical reality at the time.

Over time, the Garden has changed its appearance several times, while maintaining two essential vocations: classical botanical research and herbal-pharmaceutical approach. During the last century the hedges of the Italian garden were removed and then replanted, while large green spaces were used for medicinal plants cultivation. In the thirties the Garden hosted one of the first Italian University courses in herbal medicine.

Like any living place, the garden undergoes a continuous transformation as a result of biology, fashions and human initiatives. The entire plant shows the stratification of natural and non-natural activities, such as the introduction of new species, the felling of trees at the end of life or the alteration of the historical nature of the Italian garden due to the planting of trees that provided a special shade while limiting the growth of some species. However, the arboretum testifies to the natural cycle of vegetative life where human intervention is minimal.

The Botanic garden holds a wide collection of succulent plants, mostly Cactaceae.In addition to giving us the gift of blooms as ephemeral as surprising, these species demonstrate the ability of plants to adapt to extreme environmental conditions. They also raise awareness of climate change and of the gradual disappearance of their natural habitats.

The Botanic garden hosts a collection of the so-called Violetta di Parma. It is an ancient variety with double flowers, rich in mauve-colored petals, so thick as to discourage the formation of stamens and pistils. They require a great care due to their high delicacy and also to their sterility. From November to May these unique violets spread around an unparalleled scent and a poignant beauty.