Today’s travelpost is about  a haven of tranquility in the midst of the city… the botanical garden in Antwerp. We live near Antwerp so we regularly visit this lively town to do some shopping, have a drink here or there, go to a museum or exhibiton or just stroll around a bit. We usually visit the same neighbourhoods: the historical city centre, het Eilandje, the Dageraadplaats,… but last weekend we had a little stroll in the botanical garden.

The botanical garden is situated right in the city centre and yet we had never visited it before. The entrance can be found in the Leopoldstraat, which is not far from several theatres. The Bourla theatre, the Stadsschouwburg, the Arenberg theatre,…

The garden is, as many parks and gardens, the perfect place to get away from the hussle and bussle from the city.

In the 16th century, the apothecary of the nearby hospital (the Sint-Elisabeth hospital which is still there), planted a unique botanical garden. He used more than 600 different species of plants and herbs to make his medicines. Since 1926, the garden is under the administration of the city council. In 1950, the garden was classified als a landscape of great value. It now counts more than 2000 plants, herbs, trees and shrubs, among which several are protected.

There is also a greenhouse with a large collection of tropical plants, but unfortunately this was closed at the time of our visit. There is also a small pond with koi fish and then there are several works of art in the garden, like ‘Greening II’ from Monique Donckers. This work of art illustrates a figure rising out of the grass.

On the grounds of the botanical garden is also a crossbow shooting gallery from the 17th century and the gardener’s lodge. This lodge, which looks like a Swiss chalet, is now converted into a lunch lounge/tearoom, owned by Roger Van Damme, an exquisite patissier and chef. Unfortunately the tearoom was closed… I will have to come back later to savour one of his magical desserts!

We took our time to have a look around the garden which looked so beautiful in all these fall colours. I bet the garden will look nice in spring and summer too…

My husband took some outfitphotos of me for my next outfitpost… so make sure to tune in next Saturday to see them 🙂

I hope you enjoyed this post and photos of the Botanical Garden. Do you like to visit parks and gardens?

Love, Kathleen

Here you can read a post about some gardens we visited in Normandy last year.