The world‘s first botan­i­cal gar­den was cre­at­ed in Pad­ua in 1545. It still pre­serves its orig­i­nal lay­out &ndash, a cir­cu­lar cen­tral plot, sym­bol­iz­ing the world, sur­round­ed by a ring of water. Oth­er ele­ments were added lat­er, some archi­tec­tur­al (orna­men­tal entrances and balustrades) and some prac­ti­cal (pump­ing instal­la­tions and green­hous­es). It con­tin­ues to serve its orig­i­nal pur­pose as a cen­tre for sci­en­tif­ic research.