Giardini Botanici Hanbury

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Villa

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The Giardini Botanici Hanbury (18 hectares), also known as Villa Hanbury, are major botanical gardens operated by the University of Genoa. They are located at Corso Montecarlo 43, Mortola Inferiore, several km west of Ventimiglia, Italy, and are open daily. An admission fee is charged.

The gardens were established by Sir Thomas Hanbury on a small, steep peninsula jutting southwards from an altitude of 103 meters down into the Mediterranean Sea. He purchased the extant Palazzo Orengo property in 1867, and over decades created the garden with the aid of pharmacologist Daniel Hanbury (his brother) and scientists including Gustav Cronemayer, Kurt Dinter, and Alwin Berger. By 1883 the garden's Index seminum contained about 600 species, which had grown to 3,500 species in the 1889 catalog, and 5,800 species by the 1912 version. Hanbury died in 1907, but energetic plantings and improvements resumed after World War I under the direction of his daughter-in-law Lady Dorothy Hanbury.

Unfortunately, the gardens were severely damaged in World War II, when they became a no-man's land, and in 1960 Lady Hanbury sold them to the State of Italy. Initially its care was entrusted to the International Institute of Ligurian Studies, but when they withdraw for lack of adequate funds in 1983, responsibility was passed to the University of Genoa. Restoration has been gradually proceeding since 1987, and it was declared a nature preserve in 2000.

Today 9 of the gardens' 18 hectares are under cultivation. Major collections include agaves, aloes, and salvia, as well as fine old specimens of Araucaria cunninghamii, Casimiroa edulis, olive trees, and Olmediella betschleriana. An orchard of rare fruits includes Actinidia, Carica, Diospyros, Eugenia, Feijoa, Fortunella, Macadamia, Mespilus, and Persea. Additional collections feature palms, succulents, Australian trees, citrus, and cultivated flowers.

Although the Villa itself is not open to the public, its loggia and gardens may be visited. The gardens contain a number of interesting features, including a fountain with bronze dragon from Kyoto, a Japanese bell dated 1764, the fanciful Museo Moresco with graves of Hanbury and his wife, a stretch of Roman road, grottos, statuary, etc. A small snack bar beside the sea provides refreshment.