Giardino botanico alpino di Campo Imperatore, L'Aquila: visitor guide

The alpine botanical garden of Campo Imperatore «Vincenzo Rivera» is a high-altitude botanical garden at the western end of Campo Imperatore, in the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park and within the municipal territory of L'Aquila, at 2117 metres above sea level.

What to see

In 1949 Vincenzo Rivera, already a lecturer in botany at the University of Rome, helped bring some summer university courses of the Roman university to L'Aquila, which led in 1952 to the founding of the University of L'Aquila. In this context, in 1950, he promoted the garden, which at the time was the highest in Europe; in 1952 the garden won recognition from the National Research Council and was inaugurated. The land, owned by the municipality, was handed to the University of L'Aquila in 1971 and named after Rivera; the site is run by the university together with the national park and since 1997 it has been recognised by the Abruzzo Region as a site of regional interest.

The garden is a short way from the arrival point of the Gran Sasso cableway, right beside the astronomical observatory, above the natural limit of vegetation: at 2117 metres it is the highest in the Apennines and, according to the sources, the second highest in Europe after the alpine botanical garden on Mont Blanc, established in 1984. Since 1992 it has been entirely within the national park and it holds more than three hundred plant species, almost all herbaceous, adapted to very difficult climatic and natural conditions. It is divided into four sectors: the systematic collection, the rock garden, the seslerieto and the festucheto. It also has a museum section, a research centre and a specialised library, within the university complex of L'Aquila.

Visiting

The garden is usually open to the public in the summer season; dates, hours and arrangements should be checked with the University of L'Aquila, which runs it together with the national park.