20 mn euro face-lift for world's oldest botanical garden

Padua university funding upgrading for seed research

(ANSA) - Padua, September 15 - The world's oldest botanical garden in the northern Italian city of Padua will receive a 20-million-euro face-lift to become a 'biodiversity garden' with zero impact on the environment, Padua University said Monday.

The plant-growing area at Padua's botanical garden, founded more than 450 years ago, will be expanded to 37,000 square metres to 22,000 square metres to allow the cultivation inside an enormous greenhouse of every species of vegetation from tropical forests to savanna, Mediterranean climate or desert, according to Giorgio Strapazzon, who is planning the revolutionary transformation.

The greenhouse also will serve as laboratories for seed research and biology. The 20 million euros cost of the face-lift will be borne by the University of Padua, said Rector Giuseppe Zaccaria.