KOMAROV BOTANY MUSEUM AND THE BOTANICAL GARDENS

2 ulitsa Professora Popova 197376 St. Petersburg
Open: 11 am - 5pm, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays
Tel. 346-3639
Nearest metro station: Petrogradskaya

In 1714, Peter the Great ordered that a market garden for the cultivation of medicinal herbs be constructed on Aptekarsky Island. Subsequently, a large research and educational centre, the Botanical Gardens, emerged here. The Botanical Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences was founded in 1823.

The museum's superb collection, totalling over 80,000 specimens of plant life, is based on the arboretum of Peter's Kunstkammer and collections contributed by many Russian botanists and travellers, including Nikolai Przhevalsky, Grigory Potanin, Vsevolod Roborovsky and Vladimir Komarov, after whom the museum is named.

The exhibition focuses on four main themes: world vegetation; the history and evolution of plants; Russia's vegetable resources; and plants and man. The displays within the museum are supplemented by collections of natural flowers in the Botanical Gardens. Here one can see both flora that is characteristic of temperate regions and plants of the Caucasus, the Mediterranean, Central Asia and North America. The hothouses reproduce the exotic environment of tropical and subtropical forests and savannahs all year round.