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This alpine botanical garden is in the park of the Castel Savoia (the villa of Queen Margherita of Savoy, who happened to be a mountaineering enthusiast), in Gressoney-Saint-Jean, in the Lys Valley. The gardens are located at some 4.430 ft of altitude above sea level.

The whole area, now a regional property, often hosts exhibitions and events, and is surrounded by a park of firs and larches (Larix decidua); a 1.196-square yard rock garden has been recently annexed to this area.

The botanical garden was built in 1990, almost a hundred years after the villa. It belongs to the local municipality and is managed by the Gaby Forest Station, on behalf of the Autonomous Region of Valle d’Aosta.

The garden features a predominantly aesthetic setting: it stretches on 386 square miles of rocky flower beds that reproduce the alpine environment or feature hybrids and cultivars of ornamental plants of particular aesthetic interest – coming from many parts of the world: they were chosen according to their luxuriant blooms or undisputed ornamental value.

Thanks to painstaking and dedicated work, the garden now performs important educational functions and has never lost not its scientific heritage and value. It is open all year round and can be visited with no admission fee during the same opening hours as the castle, from May to September. The best time to visit it though is between July and to fully enjoy the mesmerizing shade and fragrances of its blossoming flowers.

BOTANICAL FEATURES

The garden is home to very rare, ornamental species and also widespread ones such as martagon lily (Lilium martagon), alpenrose (Rhododendron ferrugineum), edelweiss (Leontopodium alpinum), globeflower (Trollius europaeus), alpine columbine (Aquilegia alpina), mountain arnica (Arnica montana ), houseleeks (Semprevivum montanum and S. arachnoideum), gentians, lilies, saxifrages, and fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) – much widespread near the paths and along the banks of the Lys stream and used as a medicinal herb.