Among the gardens created by men, the botanical garden can be considered as one of the most important. It has many functions such as scientific, educational, social, aesthetical, historical and ecological. The contemporary Botanical Garden of São Paulo was officially established in 1938 with all the functions mentioned above, but the record of its history lacks a revision. The history of the Botanical Garden of São Paulo has shown some frustrated attempts to initially establish the Garden and then to change its original site. Two areas for the construction of the Garden were the most relevant to its history: the site where it was initially conceived, between 1799 and 1838, which today is known as Parque da Luz, and the site where it is now present, since 1928, at the Parque Estadual das Fontes do Ipiranga (PEFI). There were other botanical gardens at São Paulo between 1896 and 1928 such as Horto Botânico da Cantareira, Horto Botânico Oswaldo Cruz and Horto Botânico do Museu Paulista. Nowadays, only the Botanical Garden at PEFI remains. The history of the Botanical Garden of São Paulo is associated with the history of a governmental scientific research institution, the Instituto de Botânica, which is presently responsible for its administration.
Botanical garden; landscape; history; São Paulo
