HISTORY | THE ORIGINS: PHYSIC GARDENS

The first Physic Gardens appeared in renaissance Italy, conceived as a practical complement to medical studies. Their origins in Valencia date back to 1567, when the city magistrates appointed Joan Plaça, Professor of Botany, and put him in charge of creating a garden to teach students about medicinal plants. No-one knows how long this garden lasted but, again, in 1631 lecturers in medicine, surgeons and apothecaries demanded another, in which to grow medicinal plants to show to their students. Two years later two cultivated plots were rented on the outskirts of Valencia, next to the convent of San Julián in Calle Sagunto, in which medicinal plants were grown under the direction of the Professor of Botany Melchor de Villena.
In 1684, another Professor of Botany, Gaudenci Senach, received a royal command to create another garden. On this occasion, a house was acquired in the parish of San Lorenzo to give classes, and the cultivated plot next-door was also rented. Even so, by the beginning of the 17th century, there was again a lack of garden resources, despite the fact that the University Constitution of 1733 declared them necessary.