Linnaeus Garden

The garden is the oldest botanical garden in Sweden, laid out in 1655, and Linnaeus took it over in 1741 and rebuilt it - he had Carl Harleman design a new orangery and by 1748 he was growing some three thousand species here, using the ground as the working basis for the classification system that made his name. It fell into neglect after his death and was restored in the 1920s to his plan of 1745, published in his Hortus Upsaliensis of 1748, with the plants arranged as he arranged them, by his own sexual system. His house at the end of the garden, built by Olaus Rudbeck in 1693, has been a museum since 1937, with his rooms and collections. It is small and quickly walked.

What's there

• Beds replanted to the 1745 plan - arranged by Linnaeus's own system.
• His house at the end - rooms and collections as a museum.
• A garden laid out in 1655 - the oldest in Sweden.
• Species he worked from - the basis of the classification.

When to go

May to September; the garden is bare otherwise. An hour and a half.

What to expect

It is small - much smaller than visitors expect of a famous garden. Winter closes it. The house museum is by ticket and sometimes tour. Uppsala's larger botanical garden is a separate site.

Nearby

The cathedral and Gustavianum are south; Linnaeus's Hammarby is out of town.

Key facts