This encounter with history of science invites us to make a trip that will lead us to the first Botanical Gardens of Havana City. This place is near Old Havana.

The first Botanical Gardens founded in Cuba by the XIX Century was aimed to study the plants of the tropical region where Cuba is located. The creation of a botanical garden is the result of an idea of the Patriotic Real Society, predecessor of the Friends of the Country Economic Society because these institution wanted to make Research on the usage of plant in Industry.

The Garden was settled in the place that the Fraternity Park occupies now a days.

It was inaugurated on May 30th, 1817, with the participation of most of the governmental authorities of Havana. Jose Antonio de la Ossa was selected to run the Garden and it did it for 7 years. He collected plants from the surroundings areas of Havana City and he counted on the help of a French gardener.

His studies are recorded in the work Flora Habanensis. He was constant in his works, advanced in his researches and dedicated for many years to the study of Botanic. There were orange trees, walnuts, oaks, rosebushes and also the ones known as “Bread Tree” and “Elastic Gum Tree”.

The garden was limited by a wood fence and by an interior line marked by lemon trees. The manor was divided by a central road. It has a main house and two minor buildings for 10 slaves.

In 1822 the Spanish naturalist Ramon de la Sagra y Peris (1798-1871) was designed to run the Garden.

The main contributions of the Botanical Garden to the community was medicine because its stonecutters and seed beds were aimed to cultivate medicinal plants, which leafs, roots and fruits were requested and consumed by a lot of drugstores of the Cuban Capital. This custom became a tradition that we keep now a days.