Bergius Botanical Gardens

June 21, 2018

Bergius Botanical Gardens

I was out on another adventure with my visiting parents the other day. This time we visited the Bergius Botanical Gardens (or Bergianska Trädgården). It was actually my first visit here... so it is perfect for a blog article! I recently blogged about taking a nature walk around Djurgården park and the botanical gardens are actually a part of the park, albeit in the northern part (not the island of Djurgården). The park is actually quite huge, stretching like an inverted, wonky C around the eastern part of the Stockholm.

The Japanese pond

Bergianska Trädgården is located on the shores of Brunnsviken, close to Stockholm University in an area called Frescati. This is north of the central part of Stockholm, 7 subway stops (red line) from the Hotel Rival to the station Universitet. While it isn't centrally located, it is good to note that, besides the gardens, you have acres of parkland as well as the Museum of Natural History in the area... so you can easily spend a full day here.

Herb garden with Gamla Orangeriet

The Gardens were originally founded by the Bergius brothers back in 1791 and moved to its current location in 1885. The gardens themselves are free to visit and wander about. They do have two greenhouses which charge admission... the Edvard Anderson Conservatory and the historic Victoria House (open only May through September). They also have an old orangery (Gamla Orangeriet) with herb garden which has a nice restaurant & café for lunch.

Giant lily pads at Victoria House

We mainly wandered through the outdoor gardens. The theme this year is "around the world" and we enjoyed the Italian terrace, Japanese gardens and Rhododendron valley. We did visit the Victoria House which, while small, was pretty amazing... especially the giant water lily (Victoria). The lily pads are enormous and the flowers are really spectacular. The house itself is classified as historic and unique due to similar conservatories having disappeared across Europe.

Brunnsviken resembles a lake, though it is actually an inlet of the Baltic. The park stretches around the entire inlet and you can walk the entire shoreline (10 kilometers). On the other side of Brunnsviken from the botanical gardens is´Haga Park which is full of interesting places to visit. The area around Brunnsviken is a popular recreational area for Stockholmers who enjoy coming here to swim, boat, jog, bike and picnic.