Tropical Botanical Garden — Attraction in Lisbon

Beautiful and mostly well maintained tropical garden. Many trees are very old and some have impressive root-systems spread out on the grounds. During the hottest summer months, some of the park may appear less green, but this is a result of long-dry summers. Partially the result of climate change. But even then, the fallen brown leaves are an important part of the habitat, providing space for a microbiome which nourishes the soils. July/august are just not the times when the park is at it's visually biggest glory.

There are dozens of peacocks, and most of them seem used to having people walk around them. Don't feed them, as the surroundings provide enough food, especially when the date fruits start abundantly falling down from the trees.

There are some early 18th-century statues of mythical figures like Atlas, made of marble. Quite remarkable are the 14 sculptures called 'representations of Asian and African figures in painted cement', made in 1939/1940 by Manuel de Oliveira. The busts, who are spread out through the park, always in couples of two, are quite detailed, and they depict life-like people with proud expressions. Despite the colonial connotation and not having an obvious relation to what you see around you. It's a cultural inheritance from the 1940 Portuguese World Exhibition in Belém. I wonder if the sculptures were made after (pictures of) real persons.

It's a pity that the renovation of the greenhouses of 1914 hasn't even started, after many years of advertising the project. The metal ornaments and structure are completely rusted.

Maintenance is under the responsibility of the Tropical Scientific Research Institute.

They also control the long-time empty former palace of the Counts of Calheta, on the same grounds. In my opinion, if the institute lacks money, they could have a third party renovate the palace into a hotel and cafe-restaurant, with a big terrace on the beautiful veranda. Rather than let it fall to ruins. This would also benefit the visitors of the park and the park itself. Arrogance of keeping hold of possessions leads to downfall of those possessions. This institute controls several other unused lands and buildings, all falling to ruins. Such a shame.

This tropical garden is absolutely worth the small entrance fee. Hopefully some of the money will soon get spend on the renovation or at least the conservation of the...

Park is beautiful, but this review is about the "foodtopia" event! It wouldn't be too far off to call it a scam. First you have to pay 10 Euro entrance (actually a little bit more, because as usual, there is an online fee) and for every food it's 6 more Euros. (And most of them are really small, I spent 40 euros +20 entrance fee and me and my girlfriend are already hungry an hour later) The biggest issue is, you get a cup for your drink, which depending if it's for beer or wine, you have to pay 1 or 2 Euro respectively and you're told you get the money back for it. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. I bought 2 beers first and had to pay 2 Euros for the cups and later another 2 Euros, because we wanted a wine and you can't return the cups at any point, which you paid 4 euros for. Then, when you want to leave and go outside the park, you're told you're not allowed to come back anymore?! That was the biggest joke, so you either spend your whole day there our you're out of luck. I give it 2 stars, because the food was actually good sometimes and the workers there are super friendly, but I feel sorry for them, as many people where complaining about the cups. Especially in times where plastic is killing the planet, you're stuck wih some sh** cups, that are a complete waste. Save your money and go to some higher end restaurant, you'll at least won't leave hungry and definitely not spend more Than 60 euros...

An astonishing place even if you are not a botanist 🙂 every season it has something to impress - in December I got a surprise with blossoming orchids. The price is quite fair €5 (there are discounts if you fall in student / retired / kids categories). Despite being here for several times I never felt that I overpaid.

The garden is hidden just behind the Pasteis de Belem and on the right from the Jeronimos Monastery (if you face the monastery leaving the river behind you)

The park was built based on ancient Portuguese properties and a lot was done for the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940. So you could see connection of Portugal to its ex-colonies and get a feeling of these countries in different locations of the garden dedicated to Africa and Asia.

There are plenty of tropical plants from Australia and South America here. And to be honest they seem to grow in abundance because of the suitable climate and not because of the sophisticated garden management. I would say the park looks creepy in some areas (hi to movie directors - this location is waiting for you 😄) but it impresses a lot with high palms, huge ficus trees, cacti garden, flowers, bushes.

Also there are a lot of ducks, peacocks and pigeons (so be prepared - they would be following you asking for food. We took a bit of bread and felt that we didn’t have enough of it). Sometimes you may even see green...