This Botanical garden created together along with a laboratory for Physics and an observatory for Astronomy houses two hundred species, including early-flowering azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. In 1920 the Orto Botanico became the property of the City of Lucca, and was turned into a public garden. The garden's decorative elements include a series of large ceramic medallions illustrating milestones in the botanical garden's history, such as changes of directorship, the planting of the prized Lebanon cedar (1822) that has now grown into a splendid specimen (and also the oldest in the whole arboretum), and the Congress of Scientists who gathered in Lucca in 1843. Other ornamental elements include the gate whose pillars are decorated with relief laurel leaves and are topped by two lions, thought to have been sculpted by Lorenzo Nottolini; a sphinx and a particularly large pumpkin, both in terracotta, adorn the octagonal pool in which aquatic plants are cultivated. At the end of this central avenue, near the lake is a group of fine Virginia cypresses.

• Reduced fee is 2.00 Euros.

• By bus

• Gli Orti di Via Elisa
• Albergo Celide

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