'Pflanzenwelt unter Glas', Augsburg Botanical Garden

Augsburg's botanical garden opened on 27 September 1936, together with the new municipal nursery, on a site of about 1.7 hectares. Its palm house and exotic plants were among the main attractions, and a house for the Victoria regia water lily followed in 1937.

During the Second World War the growing beds were turned over to vegetables, and the service buildings, display houses and plant collections suffered heavy damage. Gradually restored, the garden reopened in July 1950. It expanded to about five hectares in the 1970s and again for the 1985 Bavarian state garden show, which drew around a million visitors; today it covers some ten hectares.

In the early 2000s the City of Augsburg decided to renew its display houses. The old palm house was demolished and, after a two-year build, the 'Pflanzenwelt unter Glas' opened to the public in November 2003. The historic water garden of 1937 was restored at the same time, and the Victoria regia house was kept inside the new building.

The 'Pflanzenwelt unter Glas' takes the form of a glass cube of about 600 m², described by the city as a modern, lightweight structure. Its glazing carries a special film, and the volume was designed to enclose the old Victoria regia house: the steel frame of that octagonal pavilion of 1937 was absorbed into the new building, so that a historic glasshouse now stands within a contemporary one.

Inside, the space is arranged as a sequence of climate zones. The entrance is given over to savanna, with cacti, spurges and succulents, while the heart of the building is a warm, humid tropical hall, complemented by a small pool and an aquarium of African fish. The former octagonal pavilion, with its large basin, serves as the aquatic house and hosts tropical butterflies in spring. The architect's name was not found in the sources consulted.

More than 1,200 species and varieties grow under glass. The savanna zone gathers cacti, spurges and other succulents. The tropical hall shows rubber trees and figs, orchids and bromeliads, together with a wide range of useful plants: bananas, coffee, cacao, cardamom, vanilla and Ceylon cinnamon.

In the former octagonal pavilion, now the 'Pavillon der Schmetterlinge', a large basin holds tropical water lilies, including Victoria amazonica, surrounded by aquatic and tropical useful plants. From late February to early April tropical butterflies fly freely there, making those weeks one of the highlights of the garden's year.

The glasshouse lies near the entrance of the botanical garden, next to the city zoo. Half an hour to an hour is enough for the glasshouse itself, but the ten-hectare garden deserves a longer stay: the 4,200 m² Japanese garden, a gift from the twin towns of Amagasaki and Nagahama, and more than a million bulbs make it a favourite spring walk. The tropical butterfly show, from late February to early April, is the best reason to come at the end of winter.