Where the Grass is Greener: Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Lisboa

«For those who want to know more about the Poncirus trifoliat, or just wish to take a nap on the city's most exotic lawn.»

in Guia Le Cool, 2008, pág. 227

O Jardim Botânico visto pelo guia Berlitz

The Jardim Botânico, opened to the public in 1873, has one of the finest collections of botanical specimens in southern Europe. You enter throught a courtyard surrounded by the rather shabby buildings of the Faculdade de Ciências, then descend a flight of stone stairs into a cool, hilly, luxuriant garden of winding paths, boxwood mazes, lily ponds, and streams crossed by bridges and stepping stones.

Set liberally about are benches where you can sit listening to the chaffinches and robins and looking at the stately or surprising trees - jacaranda, giant ficus, frangipani, aruacaria, tipu, cork oak, eucalyptus, olive, and strange Australian and African species with grotesquely twisted trunks or enormous air roots. There are also tree-size camellias and floods of flowers, all neatly labeled.

Along one side runs a grand avenue of magnificent palms, at least 50 different varieties. If you follow this path to its end you'll arrive at the park's second entrance, emerging on the Rua da Alegria just a few blocks from the Avenida da Liberdade and a few steps from the charming little hotel Príncipe Real. If you happen to be staying there, the garden offers a convenient downhill approach.

in Portugal, The Berlitz Travellers Guide, New York, 1993

FOTO: Avenida das Palmeiras. Infelizmente, passados 15 anos sobre esta descrição, já há muitos anos que não corre água nos riachos, o Lago de Baixo está seco e de um modo geral tudo se degradou acentuadamente, incluíndo o património arbóreo.

O Jardim Botânico visto por Fernando Pessoa

Going further on, and straight on, we see on the right the building of the Escola Polytechnica, where the Faculty of Sciences is now installed. This building was erected in 1884 on the ground belonging to the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus. In some buildings adjoining the Escola the Museu du Bocage (Zoological Museum) is installed. This museum is worth visiting, for it contains some curious specimens. In the Sala Portugal there are some remarkable fishes; there is a strange one, 8,40 metres long and 3,60 metres round which was caught at Paço d'Arcos by King Carlos. Ther is also an enormous tortoise caught in the Peniche coast. After the Sala Portugal, there is the Sala de África Portugueza (Portuguese Africa Room) with a very important and varied collection; the Mammals Room, with a very fair amount of specimens from all over the world; the Birds Room, the Invertebrates Room, the Skeletons Room, and such like. The number of specimens, covering mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, etc., is over 20,000, and there are more than 50,000 insects. The shell collection, which is enormous, must also not be forgotten.

As the installation is undergoing, in so far as the building is concerned, extensive repairs, there is no definite day for visitors; but, if the due authority is requested, the palce can be visited every day between 12:30 and 6:30 p.m.

This Museum is installed in the first floor of the building; on the ground floor are the botanical Museum, and the Museum of Geology and Mineralogy. The latter is especially remarkable, one of its most interesting exhibits being a large mass of native copper, partly covered with cuprite, weighing 1224 kilos; this comes from Mamocabo stream, near the town of Cachoeira, 120 kilometres from Bahia (Brazil), and was brought to Portugal as far back as 1792.

This building has adjoining it a garden which is one of the most picturesque in Lisbon, and even in Europe; so, at least, many foreigners have said. It contains specimens of the flora of all regions of the world. The garden is in a slope, and this is one of its great points, for the incline has been put to good use to every possible effect out of the varied vegetation that everywhere rises up, giving the aggregate an Edenic splendour. The garden contains several ponds, cascades, brooks, bridges, labyrinths, a fine hot-house, etc. in its upper part stands the Meteorological Observatory named after Infante Dom Luiz, and inaugurated in 1863, and also the Astronomical Observatory.

The tourist, should he so wish it, can go right through the garden and come out at the lower door, in Praça da Alegria, going on from there to the Avenida da Liberdade; but, as we are taking another route, we shall come out again at rua da escola Polytechnica, passing a frew yards onward by the Imprensa Nacional (National Printing Office).

in Lisboa: What The Tourist Should See, 1925

FOTO: Avenida das Palmeiras vista do terraço da Classe