Old Botanical Garden in Zurich

Brief information

The Old Botanical Garden occupies not just a green plot in the center of Zurich, but the site of the former “zur Katz” fortification. From 1833, the university garden existed alongside the bastion, and from 1851 to 1976 this was where the Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich was located. As a result, the place can be read on two scales at once: as a park with an arboretum and as a former scientific site that, over time, became cramped in the city center.

The relocation explains the garden’s present character. The site was hemmed in by neighboring buildings, and the high-rise structures of the mid-1960s shaded the plants. After the new garden opened in Weinegg, the old grounds became a recreation area, an arboretum, and Gessner’s Garden. The history has not disappeared: the hill, the bastion past, and the labeled plants help show how the place changed its function while preserving its botanical memory.

What to notice first

You can compare three noticeable features that show the change in function. The first is the octagonal glass Palm House: it began as a greenhouse, and after its wooden frame was replaced with an iron one, it became sturdier and today serves as a venue for concerts, theater, and exhibitions. The second is Gessner’s Garden at the top of the hill: its position is connected with the former rampart, where the southern gun bastion once stood. The third is the labeled medicinal plants. There are 50 of them here, and the signs turn the beds into a brief guide to 16th-century medical knowledge. The monument to Conrad Gessner on the northern side links this part of the garden not with decorative planting, but with early botanical science.