Postcards #4: The Linnaeus Garden, Uppsala

The original site of the Uppsala University's Botanical Garden, this garden was laid out by Olof Rudbeck in 1655 and was one of the foremost botanical gardens in the 17th century Europe. When Linnaeus became professor of medicine and botany in 1741, he was also appointed head of the botanical garden. Together with the architect Carl Hårleman, he improved the already existing garden, and the Botanical House in the garden became the private home of Linnaeus and his family. The garden flourished and students flocked to it to attend Linnaeus' inspiring lectures and botanic demonstrations.

After Linnaeus' death, the old garden was considered too small to serve its intended purpose and the new director of the garden, Carl Peter Thunberg, managed to persuade King Gustav III to donate the gardens of Uppsala Castle to the University for use as a botanical garden (see my previous post).

The old botanical garden was abandoned in 1802, the Orangery was converted into a clubhouse, and only after 1917, when the Swedish Linnaeus Society was founded, the garden was restored to its former glory. Today, more than 1,000 species are grown in the garden - all are species known to have been cultivated in Linnaeus' day, and arranged following his classification of the plant kingdom.

The Orangery was built in 1744.

The Director's Lodge was Linnaeus' home 1743 - 78.

The Apricarium where succulents were kept during summers.

There are two Parterres, one for perennials and one for annual and biennial  species. The plants' labels follow an old design used by the Botanical garden.

Did we do any shopping in the lovely museum shop? Of course we did. We bought some gifts for relatives and friends. I bought a small book for myself, and we were pleased to receive some envelopes of seeds, picked from the very garden.

We also enjoyed a tasty lunch in the adjacent café "Smultron" ('strawberry').

For our travel, I had borrowed a "tourist zoom lens", because I didn't feel like bringing with me many lenses and swapping them all the time. It was practical, but I'm not completely happy with the sharpness of many of my photos. Perhaps more practicing would have been useful. :)

Next: Heading south