Botanical Garden André Heller

In 1901, Prof. Arturo Hruska, a dentist and naturalist of great renown, arrived in Gardone. He appreciated the particular climate of Gardone. Between 1910 and 1971, he created a botanical garden around his residence, extending over a little more than one and a half hectares, in which he grouped more than 500 species of flora from all continents and the most diverse climatic zones: magnolias, primulas from Tibet, reeds of all sizes, irises and verdant ferns, among which the Osmunda regalis stands out. There is a wide range of succulent and subtropical plants, many aquatic plants in small ponds, amidst water features typical of Japanese landscaping; the bamboo forest is dense. Rocks, crevasses and gorges nestle the alpine flowers. Since 1988, the Garden has been owned by the André Heller Foundation, a famous Austrian multimedia artist.