Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Jardin des Plantes, located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, finds its origins in Neolithic as a river junction between the Bièvre and the Seine. In the 16th century, Nicolas Houël taught botany on marshy farmland. In 1626, a royal edict created the Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants under the leadership of Guy de La Brosse, inaugurated in 1640. This garden, intended for the study of plants for medical students, becomes a dependence of the crown under the name of King's Garden.

In the 18th century, Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, intendant from 1739 to 1788, radically transformed the site into a major scientific centre, expanding its grip and adding greenhouses, a maze and a menagerie. The French Revolution renamed the Jardin des plantes de Paris in 1793 and founded the National Museum of Natural History, under the aegis of scholars such as Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Daubenton. The menagerie, created in the same year, welcomed the animals of the royal menagerie of Versailles.

The 19th century marked an architectural and scientific expansion: construction of the galleries of Mineralology (1837), Zoology (1889, now Great Gallery of Evolution), and Paleontology (1898), as well as metal greenhouses (1836). The garden is also enriched with thematic areas such as the Botanical School (André Thouin), the Alpine Garden (1931) and the Ecological Garden (1932). Ranked a Historic Monument in 1993 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024, the site now combines conservation, research and openness to the public.

The Jardin des Plantes houses historical specimens, such as a robin tree planted around 1610 or a plane tree of 1785, as well as underground infrastructure (Lutetian limestone quarry). Its landscape organization blends a perspective with French (XVIIth–XVIIIth centuries) and an English (XVIIIth century) sector, with emblematic elements such as the Buffon Glariette or the Lions fountain. The Bièvre, once crossing the garden, was covered in the 19th century, leaving room for streets and laboratories.

The Householdry, the second oldest zoo in the world, illustrates the evolution of zoological practices, from the summary cages of the eighteenth century to modern infrastructures such as the aviary (1889). The garden also plays a cultural role, inspired by literary and artistic works, and contributes to the preservation of biodiversity (bee hotels, ecological garden). Today, it remains an emblematic place of science, natural history and Parisian heritage.

Future

In addition to the green spaces of a garden (parterres, botanical spaces, trees, English garden, etc.), there is also a menagerie, greenhouses, and scientific exhibition buildings that the Museum calls "galleries" (the gallery of Mineralology thus acts as a museum of mineralogy and the gallery of Paleontology, for example, is a museum of paleontology).

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