One of the most important Mediterranean botanical gardens in Europe
Hanbury Gardens at La Mortola, just inside the Italian border near Menton, is one of the most important Mediterranean botanical gardens in Europe. Created by the English merchant Thomas Hanbury from 1867, it takes full advantage of a steep coastal site — terraced down towards the sea — and a mild microclimate to cultivate an extraordinary range of plants from Mediterranean, subtropical and southern hemisphere regions.
The garden's terraces descend through succulents, aloes, agaves, palms, citrus, olive trees and an astonishing variety of Mediterranean shrubs and perennials, with views over the Ligurian coast that change at every level. Hanbury was both a serious botanist and a collector, and the garden reflects both impulses: it is scientific in its breadth and beautiful in its setting.
Visiting Hanbury in the context of a French Riviera garden tour provides the wider framework: the garden belongs to a coastal culture of plant collecting and horticultural experiment, shaped by the same mild climate that drew gardeners — English, French, Belgian and Russian — to the Riviera from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Hanbury is one of the strongest surviving examples of that tradition.