The foundation of the Botanical Garden

Probably built to a design by the architect Andrea Moroni, the Medicinal Garden is created on the basis of a circular structure with an inscribed square and, in turn, divided into four smaller squares, by two perpendicular avenues. Inside, some flower beds form geometric designs that are different from each other. In 1552, due to the continuous theft of plants, the structure was circumscribed by a wall.

In the following centuries the Garden underwent changes and transformations, enriching itself with statues, fountains, busts and decorative elements but such as not to alter the original structure; Over time, the greenhouses and the hemicycle hall, the so-called 'botanical theatre', were also added. The entire structure, on the other hand, was enlarged beyond the boundary wall, only in the 1800s.
Today the Botanical Garden, considered the origin of all the botanical gardens in the world, houses about 7000 specimens belonging to over 3500 different species, rare and majestic species, including an oriental plane tree from 1680 with a hollow stem, a ginkgo from 1750 and a magnolia perhaps dating back to 1786, but also a St. Peter's palm planted in 1585 and which Goethe described in his essay on the metamorphosis of plants.

What was once the prefect's residence, a large building that dates back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is now an exhibition space that houses the Historical Library, the Archive and the Germplasm Bank.
Today in the Botanical Garden there is campus a Herbarium, which has about 600,000 specimens including extinct species, which is flanked by a collection of algae, the Algario.
Since 1997, it has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a cultural asset.

Following the acquisition of a new area to the south of the Ancient Botanical Garden, since 2014 the new greenhouses of the Biodiversity Garden have been open to the public, hosting about 1,300 plant species simulating the climatic conditions of the various environmental systems. 
To complete the Renaissance Garden and the Biodiversity Garden, in 2023 the Botanical Museum was inaugurated, a new exhibition nucleus that presents a significant selection of the historical heritage of the University of Padua, until now mainly intended for research and teaching and not visible to the general public.