Created in 1768, the Royal Botanical Garden of Ajuda is the oldest in Portugal and one of the first fifteen of its kind in Europe. Its foundation is linked to the transfer of King D. José I’s court to Ajuda after the 1755 earthquake that destroyed the Paço da Ribeira and almost the entire city of Lisbon. Outlined by the Italian botanist Domingos Vandelli, it was intended, along with the Natural History Museum and a physics office located nearby, for the education of princes. With an area of 3,5 hectares divided into two uneven decks, the garden (where several sculptural and ornamental elements of baroque influence stand out) currently displays not only a botanical collection, but also an ornamental promenade garden bordered by boxwood hedges, a “garden of scents” designed for the blind, and the ‘arborinho’.