Norway’s oldest botanical garden has 7,500 individual species and was planted in 1814 in the central Tøyen neighborhood.
Originally owned by the Medieval Nonneseter Abbey, this land was later acquired by Frederick VI of Denmark who donated it to the University of Christiania in 1812. Much of the garden is taken up by an arboretum with 1,800 different species that have been organized scientifically.
The garden is strewn with woven sculptures by the artist Tom Hare, and there are two greenhouses, the Palm House built in 1868 and the Victoria House in 1876, named for the marvelous Victoria water lilies kept in the pond.