Cantonal Botanical Museum and Gardens

The Cantonal Botanical Museum and Gardens (French: Musée et jardins botaniques cantonaux, MJBC) in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, comprises the museum and botanical garden in Lausanne, as well as the botanical garden, La Thomasia, in the Alps near the town of Bex. Administered under the Service of cultural affairs of Vaud, the museum and gardens engage in the study and protection of local flora, as well as in promoting public awareness in biodiversity and nature education in general.

The museum, as well as the two botanical gardens are listed as cultural assets of national importance.

Although the first recorded private botanical garden in Lausanne dates from the end of the seventeenth century, the first cantonal botanical garden had its origin in the donation by Baron Albert de Büren of his collection of 1700 plants to the state in 1873. This was to serve as the basis for the creation of a botanical garden by the canton. At first, there was a temporary placement at Champ-de-l 'Air near what is now the University Hospital of Lausanne. In 1890, the collection was moved to the site of the newly constituted University of Lausanne, below the Faculty of Chemistry and Physics, rue de Couvaloup, where it was essentially used for the teaching of pharmacy and visited mainly by students.

In 1946, the garden was moved to its actual location, Avenue de Cour 14, on the south slope of Montriond-le-Crêt, a hill in the Parc de Milan, between the Lausanne train station and Lake Léman.

The design and creation of this new garden was the fruit of the close collaboration between the architect, Alphonse Laverrière, the professor Florian Cosandey, and the gardener, Charles Lardet. The plan for this new site included alpine rock gardens and a pool dominated by a cliff made of strata of rock and a cascade falling into the basin. The stone came from the Jura Mountains above Bière but the quarrying and assembly were made more difficult than custom by the strict requirements of the job. No marks of tools or broken fragments were allowed to be seen in the finished work, which must appear natural and as if part of the original hill site.

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