Wroclaw Botanical Garden

The garden was founded in 1811 by the university on the site of a filled arm of the Oder beside Cathedral Island, which is why it has a long pond running through it - the old river channel - crossed by bridges. It covers about seven and a half hectares, small for a botanical garden, and holds something over eleven thousand species and varieties in systematic beds, an alpine section, a pond, glasshouses with palms, cacti and a Victoria water lily, an arboretum and a rose collection. Two things are worth looking for beyond the planting: a cross-section of a Sudeten spruce over four hundred years old mounted with historical dates marked on its rings, and a large panorama of the Silesian carboniferous forest with fossil material. The garden was largely destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt over the following decade. It is central, walled and quiet in the middle of the city.

What you actually see

• An 1811 university garden - laid out on a filled arm of the Oder, with the channel as a pond.
• Eleven thousand species - in seven and a half hectares of systematic beds and glasshouses.
• A four-hundred-year tree section - rings marked with historical dates.
• A carboniferous panorama - fossil material and a reconstruction of the coal forest.

When to go

April to October; May and June for the fullest planting. Two to three hours.

Honest expectations

It closes for the winter season. Entry is charged and glasshouses may be separately ticketed. It is small for a botanical garden. Labelling is largely in Polish and Latin.

Nearby

Cathedral Island is next door; Wroclaw's market square is west.