Archive reports and memories. The Brera Botanical Garden of Milan (1982-2001)

Abstract

The article, based on printed material about Italian and foreign gardens and on unpublished documents preserved in different Milanese archives, aims at reconstructing the history of the Brera Botanical Garden in the period between 1982 and 2001. This is a period of particular interest in that it illustrates how the Lombard and State institutions, after leaving the Garden in a state of neglect for many decades, went on, while deciding to restore it, to fail to understand its value, risking with their plans to misrepresent its history. However, over the years, these plans were dropped and replaced with a restoration job carried out according to the most modern historical-scientific guidelines of The Florence Charter (1982). Thanks to this restoration, the Garden was enabled to redefine its role and vocation.