Padua’s Botanical Garden is the world’s oldest, created in 1545 by the Venetian Republic.   It is the world's oldest academic botanical garden that is still in its original location and has preserved its original layout – a circular central plot, symbolizing the world, surrounded by a ring of water.

Padua’s Botanical Garden was devoted to the growth of medicinal plants, the so-called ‘simple plants’ (Orto dei semplici), which produced natural remedies, and was also meant to help students distinguish genuine medicinal plants from false ones.