The Coimbra Botanical Garden

The garden was laid out in 1772, when the university was reformed and natural history became a subject that needed living material to teach from. It sits on terraces below the arches of the old aqueduct, dropping from a formal square of clipped hedges and a central fountain into progressively wilder ground: a bamboo grove, a stream, and a woodland of tall exotics planted in the nineteenth century, some of them now enormous. Iron and glass houses on the upper level hold the tender collections. It is a working university garden rather than a park, which shows in the labelling and in how much of it is simply trees.

What you actually see

• The formal terrace - box-edged beds and a fountain below the aqueduct arches.
• The Mata - the woodland of nineteenth century exotics down the slope.
• The bamboo grove - a dense stand along the lower paths.
• The glasshouses - iron and glass structures holding the tender collections.

When to go

Spring for flowering and the greenest woodland, autumn for the big trees. The main garden is open daily and free, with the glasshouses charged and on shorter hours. Coimbra is steep and the garden drops sharply below the university, so walk down through it and come back up by the road if the heat is serious.

Honest expectations

Maintenance is uneven and parts of the lower woodland look neglected; this is a university budget, not a show garden. Labels are patchy and some are in Latin only. The slope is steep and the paths are rough in places, which rules out wheels and tires legs. In August much of it is dry and tired rather than green.

Nearby

The old university stands on the hill above; the city centre and the Mondego are below.