Presentation

The Botanical Garden of Barcelona is a municipal institution at the service of society. The Garden conserves collections of Mediterranean plants from all over the world. The mission entrusted to this institution includes particularly that of conserving and documenting Catalonia’s natural heritage.

The Garden also works to promote a botanical and naturalist culture, and to foster knowledge through its activities, which are adapted to groups of all kinds, from amateurs to experts, as well as for schools. This promotional work helps to increase the public’s knowledge of nature and its awareness of the need to conserve it.

On the scientific side, the Garden is supported by the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, a mixed centre (jointly run by Barcelona City Council and the CSIC) devoted to botanical research. This prestigious centre has an important library and one of the largest herbariums in Catalonia.

The fact that the Botanical Garden is a Mediterranean garden makes it a unique facility for experimenting with plants new to the Mediterranean climate with a view to their later introduction into gardening. With this aim in mind, an agreement was formalised in 2000 between Barcelona City Council Institute of Culture and the Association of Municipalities of Barcelona Metropolitan Area (Mancomunidad of Municipios del Área Metropolitana of Barcelona, http://www.amb.es/) to maintain the Garden and enable the centre to experiment with new plants and methods to promote sustainable gardening. The results take the form of new ideas that are passed on to the other parks in Barcelona Metropolitan Area.