Hortus botanicus Leiden

Botanical garden laid out in 1590 for the medical faculty of Leiden University, making it the oldest in the Netherlands. Its first prefect, the Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius, planted the first tulip bulbs on Dutch soil here in 1593, brought directly from the Ottoman Empire, sparking the later tulip mania. The reconstructed Clusiustuin still follows his original layout, with the same medicinal herbs and old cultivars. Under glass, an 18th-century winter garden and a modern tropical greenhouse hold orchids and carnivorous plants, while a small Japanese garden recalls the Dutch trading post at Nagasaki. Entry is around twelve euros.