The Museum and Botanical Garden of Pisa is located in the historic center of the city and is part of the University Museum System of Pisa. The botanical garden was born in 1543 on the initiative of Luca Ghini, a doctor and important botanist from Imola. Thanks to the support of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de 'Medici it was possible to found the oldest university botanical garden in the world. Originally built on the banks of the Arno river, it was moved to its current location in 1591 and then gradually expanded to its current extension of about two hectares. It hosts plants from the five continents: the succulents of the African and American deserts; the aromatic plants of the Mediterranean scrub; the species of the Tuscan swamps; numerous secular trees and many others. Heir to the ancient Gallery, established in 1591 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando I de 'Medici, it still preserves the Picture Gallery, composed of seventeenth-century portraits of illustrious botanists, the monumental doorway at the entrance to the Gallery and the "Studiolo" for the seeds of the 'Botanical Garden. It also houses objects related to the teaching of university botany since the end of the eighteenth century. Some are true works of art, such as the botanical models in wax and plaster and the watercolor didactic tables (19th century). Other collections are the in vitro plant samples, the xylotheque, the didactic models, the tools of botany and the paleobotanical collections. Finally, at the Botanical Museum, thanks to two multimedia stations, it is possible to take a virtual tour of the historical collections of plants of the Herbarium (Herbarium Horti Botanici Pisani), preserved in the Palazzo at the Center of the Botanical Garden and accessible only to scholars, on booking.