Berggarten

The Berggarten is a historic botanical garden in the Herrenhäuser Gärten near Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover. It began in 1666 as a vegetable garden on a hill north of the palace before becoming a garden for exotic plants. By 1750 it had been developed into a botanical garden, and unusual trees from that period still survive. The garden includes a palm house first built in 1846 and a mausoleum where members of the royal family were buried. Damaged during the Second World War, the gardens were restored and later expanded. The garden was created under Sophia of Hanover, who turned it into a place for growing southern plants. Experiments included rice, tobacco and mulberry; the mulberry leaves fed silkworms in Hameln. The palm house, designed by Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves, opened in 1849 and held Europe’s most valuable palm collection. The mausoleum, also by Laves, became the resting place for King Ernest Augustus and Queen Frederica. Later, the remains of other royals including King George I of Great Britain were interred there. Visitors find glasshouses including the rainforest house, now an aquarium with deep-sea fish. The grounds contain surviving trees from the 18th century alongside themed gardens. The mausoleum stands within the garden walls built in the 1840s. Paths lead past the Garden Library, once the garden’s management centre. The aquarium’s tropical tanks replaced the earlier butterfly and bird displays. The garden’s layout reflects its history as both a royal experiment and a scientific collection.