The Open Gardens festival will once again open the doors and gates of some of the most beautiful gardens in Lisbon. During two weekends in May (22+23 and 29+30), there are gardens to visit freely or guided, and other activities such as a workshop on plant multiplication and a sound and visual exhibition about the Tagus watershed.
Since 2017, the Jardins Abertos team, in co-organization with the Lisbon City Council and with the high patronage of the President of the Republic, promotes a free event with visits to unique gardens in the city and various gardening, sustainability and environmental awareness activities, stimulating a positive relationship with nature in an urban context. This project, which started timidly as a guided tour and 80 participants, has taken root and grown, counting more than 200,000 participations in the last year.
As in 2020, the Open Gardens will have a program divided between physical and digital, but most of it will be face-to-face. The main focus of this festival is free tours of city gardens, including some that are usually closed to the public. To wit:
- Monteiro-Mor Botanical Park
- British Cemetery (only on Saturday 22 and 29)
- Conde dos Arcos Farm
- Lisbon Cold Storage Room
- Museum of Lisbon Gardens - Pimenta Palace
- Olivais Pedagogical Farm
- Lisbon Ismaili Center Garden
- Attorney General's Garden - Palmela Palace
- Cloister of the Convent of Chelas
- São Bento Palace Garden (only on Sunday the 23rd)
- Garden of the Constitutional Court (only on Saturday the 22nd)
- Frontier Palace Garden (only on Sunday the 30th)
From this list we highlight two gardens that are new to the festival, the Procuradoria Geral da República Garden and the Cloister of the Chelas Convent. Free tours do not need an appointment; just show up within the schedule you can see around here. However, the gardens are subject to different capacity and maximum stay time, so access will be limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.
In the Secret Gardens program there are also accompanied tours, that is, you will be able to walk in the garden by yourself but someone will be with you:
- CCB Gardens
- Alcântara Water Factory Green Roof
- Italian Embassy Garden (only on Saturday the 22nd)
- Agro-forest of Bela Flor (only on Saturday 22 and 29)
- Urban Farm NÃM (only on Sunday 23rd and 30th)
The guided tours will have the presence of a specialist and require prior registration. They are limited to groups of 5 to 10 people each day. from the event's website. The open gardens with guided tours are:
- Monsanto Biodiversity Space at Sunrise
- Lisbon Ismaili Center Garden
- Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Garden
- Attorney General's Garden - Palmela Palace
- Monteiro-Mor Botanical Park
- FEDP MAAT and Central Campus Gardens
- Marshland - Tagus Estuary
- Fito-ETAR
The program also includes a walk from the Garden of Praça D. Luís I (Cais do Sodré) to the Garden of Príncipe Real, which will allow you to see the city through different eyes. This is a guided walk by botanist Ivo Meco which will allow you to discover the small gardens that sprout in nooks and crannies of buildings, on balconies and windows. It takes place on both Saturdays, the 22nd and 29th, twice: once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Groups are limited to 10 people.
This edition of Jardins Abertos will feature Secret Gardens - private gardens located in the center of Lisbon, which will be open for guided tours by the owners, and whose addresses will not be revealed. Mysterious and shrouded in secrecy, registration for these visits will open on a random date, to be announced via the festival's social networks. The meeting point will be shared with participants in the confirmation e-mail.
After the success in 2020, the Verdes Balconies initiative is back to transform Lisbon's building facades into veritable gardens. For a few more days there is still an open call for communities of neighbors who share an interest in gardening and want to flower their balconies completely free, thanks to the support of Planta Livre.
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the model for visiting the gardens and participating in the activities will comply with all public health regulations and guidelinesin effect on the date of the festival. Because spring continues, and we don't want it to pass us by, the Jardins Abertos team invites everyone to participate safely. You can know all about the festival on the site and follow the news (for example, when the enrollment for the Secret Gardens opens or when the guided tours are sold out) at Instagram e Facebook.
