Main avenue

The main avenue of the Botanical Garden stretches from the main entrance in the north to the southern end of the Garden and is lined with trees along almost its entire length.

Halfway along, the main avenue leads past the Reitertor (rider's gate), which forms the passageway to the Belvedere. The white façade of the Baroque Löwenhaus (lion house) towers over the garden above the gate. The Löwenhaus is part of the Belvedere and housed animals from the zoo of Prince Eugene, the builder of the Belvedere, at the beginning of the 18th century. Opposite the Löwenhaus is the ornamental garden (group 19), which features a round pool with aquatic plants in its centre. In spring and summer, tulips, dahlias and other ornamental plants adorn the ornamental garden with their splendid flowers.

Past the bamboo grove, the main avenue leads to the rear part of the Garden, which is characterised first by conifers and then by broadleaf trees and shrubs. If you turn to the west, you reach the Flora of Austria group with its steppe-like dry grasslands and the exit to the neighbouring Alpengarten (alpine garden) in the Belvedere.