Situated Boulevardd Tonnellé, in front of the Bretonneau hospital, the ‘Jardin Botanique (5 hectares) the oldest public garden of Tours, was achieved in 1843 on the initiative of the chemist Jean-Anthyme Margueron (1771-1848). Thanks to the General Hospice’s and the Chemist preparatory school’s creations, the garden was thought up like a medicinal botanical garden.

In 1848 and especially in 1856, the ‘jardin botanique’ was flooded with the Loire (2 metres water in the greenhouses).
In 1863, an animal park and an orangery were created.
In 1860, some heated, temperate and cold greenhouses were added to the orangery.
In 1901, the first seeds catalogue was published.
In 1944, the greenhouses and the boiler room were damaged by the bombings.
From 1980, the north part of the garden was renovated in thematic gardens.

The ‘Jardin Botanique’ is made up of the arboretum with several remarkably beautiful trees (a forty ecu tree, a giant sequoia, an American elm tree…); an animal space with a mini farmyard, pink flamingos, the aviaries and the medicinal garden add to the arboretum. On the north part of the park, you can find the thematic gardens. To the very north end, the orangery shelters the tropical plants. The ‘Jardin Botanique’ counts more than 2000 species runned by the Chemist Faculty and the parks and gardens department of the city.