Real Jardín Botánico (CSIC)

Description

The Royal Botanical Garden is a Research Institute belonging to the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) since 1939 and has the singularity of being at the same time a Botanical Garden. Since its inception, it has carried out the basic functions of all botanical gardens: research, conservation and education. The king Fernando VI ordered the creation of the Real Botanical Garden of Madrid that was settled in Huerta de Migas Calientes, beside Manzanares river. It counted with more than 2.000 plants, picked up by the botanical and surgeon José Quer, in his numerous trips by the Iberian Peninsula or obtained by exchange with other European botanists. From 1774, the king Carlos III gave instructions for moving the Botanical Garden to it current location in Paseo del Prado, where it was inaugurated in 1781. Sabatini - royal architect - and Juan de Villanueva - who designed the Prado Museum, the Astronomical Observatory of Madrid and other works - were taken charge of the project. During those years, the three staggered terraces were built, the plants were ordered according to the Linnean method and the railing that surrounds the Garden, the vine arbours and the greenhouse - Villanueva pavilion - were built. From their creation, the teaching of the Botany was developed in the Royal botanical Garden, expeditions were favored to America and the Pacific, drawings of collections of sheets took charge and important herbaria that served of base to describe new species for the Science were gathered. In 1808, the Independence war brought to the Garden years of abandonment and sadness. In this time, the efforts of Mariano de La Gasca to maintain the Garden in the European scientific currents are prominent. In 1857, being Mariano de la Paz Graells director the Royal Botanical Garden, Important reformations, as the hothouse and the superior terrace remodeling were carried out. Also in time of Graells, a zoological garden was settled. Twelve years later, being Miguel Colmeiro director of the Botanical Garden, the zoo was moved to the Jardín del Buen Retiro. In the decade of 1880-1890, the Garden underwent important losses. In 1882 two hectares are segregated to build the building that at the moment occupies the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1886, a hurricane demolished 564 trees of great value. In the first third of the twenty century, serious research in mycology began, and the research in micromycetology adquires a high scientific level. In 1939, the Royal Botanical Garden was included in Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas an Institution of the Sciences and Techniques Spanish Ministery. In 1942, the Garden is declared Artistic Monument. In 1974, after decades of penury and abandonment, the Royal Botanical Garden was closed to the public to approach deep restoration works that finished returning him it original style. In 1981, coinciding with the bicentennial of their moving, the reformations were inaugurated by SS.MM. the Kings of Spain. In 1993 SS.MM. the Kings inaugurated the modern exhibition hothouse. The Real Jardín Botánico holds the most important collection of cryptogams of the Iberian Peninsula. Over 100,000 specimens kept, databased and available via Internet at http://www.rjb.csic.es/herbario/crypto/crywelco.htm Over 100,000 specimens of Algae, Bryophytes, Fungi and Lichens kept, databased and available via Internet at http://www.rjb.csic.es/herbario/crypto/crydb.htm Over 800,000 plants kept, currently being databased. Important collections from the Iberian Peninsula, Western Mediterranea region, the Ameericas, Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Panama.Information available at:http://www.rjb.csic.es/colecciones/herbario/fanero.htm

Contacts

ADMINISTRATIVE_POINT_OF_CONTACT
María-Paz Martín Esteban
position: Director
Royal Botanical Garden (CSIC-RJB)
Plaza de Murillo, 2
Madrid
28014
Madrid
ES
Telephone: +34 914203017
email: direccion.rjb@csic.es

Real Jardín Botánico (CSIC)
Royal Botanical Garden (CSIC-RJB), Plaza de Murillo, 2
Madrid
28014
ES
email: direccion.rjb@csic.es