The Botanical Garden owes its origin to the gardens devoted to medicinal plants, which was created by Pope Nicholas III at the end of the 13th Century in the Vatican. The present gardens were created in 1882 when it was dedicated to the cultivation of rare plants. The gardens have been used as a museum since 1983 and cover an area of around 12,000 square acres and are the most important in Italy. See more than 3,500 vegetal species, like succulent plants, orchids and tropical species. Among the rarest is the 400-year-old enormous Platan plant.