Botanical Gardens of Peter the Great

Saint Petersburg, Russia, Russia

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The Botanical Gardens of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is one of the oldest and most important botanical gardens in the country, founded by Peter I in 1714 as an “Apothecary Garden” on Aptekarsky Island to grow medicinal plants.

It later became the Imperial Botanical Garden in 1823 and is now part of the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, covering about 19 hectares of park‑like grounds, greenhouses, and research collections.

The site includes a large arboretum, extensive outdoor plantings in English‑style landscape beds, and some of Russia’s largest greenhouse complexes, housing tropical and subtropical plants, palms, ferns, orchids, cacti, and a Japanese garden, along with a 19th‑century botanical museum and experimental plant nurseries.

The garden is open to the public and functions both as a peaceful green oasis in the city and as a major center for plant science, education, and plant‑collection preservation.