An Exhibition Marks the 120th Anniversary

A retrospective exhibition is due to open at the beginning of July in the exhibition pavilion that was first opened in 1891, to mark the 120th anniversary of the Botanical Garden of Zagreb. The Botanical Garden is part of the so-called Lenuci’s Horseshoe, whose green surfaces and parks constitute the monumental framework of Zagreb’s Lower Town. The Botanical Garden was opened to visitors in 1899 as a landscaped garden with free standing groups of trees, narrow winding paths and flower beds which followed very strict symmetrical lines. As part of the University of Zagreb, the Botanical Garden of the School of Sciences and Mathematics has always played an educational role in addition to being part of Zagreb’s culture and history. Recently, it has been discovered by an increasing number of tourists and has thus gained tourism value as well. Because of its exceptional cultural and historic value, in 1971 it came under state protection as a monument of garden architecture.

The Botanical Garden’s main activity is to cultivate plants, some of them rare species. It consists of an arboretum, a number of flower beds, fourteen glasshouses, three rockeries, and two man-made lakes, which have often served as an inspiration to great names of Croatian fine arts. The great Croatian water colorist, Slava Raškaj, used the scenes from these lakes to paint her famous “Water Lilies” series, which is now considered the masterpiece of Croatian water color painting from the turn of the 19th century.

Among the buildings in the garden, one should single out the management building in the secession style, the building of the Botanical Institute and the exhibition pavilion, which was first built in 1891 and thoroughly reconstructed two years ago.

The Botanical Garden’s total surface is 4.7 hectares, and most of it is occupied by the arboretum that is landscaped as an English countryside garden. All the plants grown in the garden constitute its collection which is divided into several parts with an impressive number of autochthonous species. Owing to the support extended by the City of Zagreb in honor of the impressive jubilee, the glasshouses have been renovated and a new fence has been built around the garden. Entrance to the Botanical Garden is free.