📍Linnaeus Museum, Svartbäcksgatan 27, 753 32 Uppsala, Sweden
1743 – 1778“I grew up in Råshult, in Småland, where my father, Nils, was a curate and a passionate gardener. He gave me a small garden of my own, and I was so fond of flowers that people called me the little botanist; when I was upset as a baby, a flower in my hand would calm me. My family hoped I would follow my father into the church, but my teachers saw that I belonged to nature and medicine. I studied at Lund and Uppsala, travelled through Lapland collecting plants and took my medical degree in the Netherlands. In 1741 I became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala, and took charge of the university's neglected botanical garden on Svartbäcksgatan. The professor's house beside it was in such poor repair that I refused to live there until it was renovated, and in 1743 my wife, Sara Lisa, our son and I moved in. The garden became my life's work: I rebuilt it, planted it according to my system, and filled it with plants sent by my students and correspondents from across the world. Orangeries sheltered exotic plants through the Swedish winter, and I even kept monkeys and parrots. From this house I taught, wrote and organised. My lectures were packed, and on summer days I led my students on botanical excursions into the countryside around Uppsala, returning with music and banners. Here I prepared Species Plantarum and the later editions of Systema Naturae, which gave every plant and animal a two-part Latin name. My students, whom I called my apostles, sailed with explorers to every continent. The house is now the Linnaeus Museum, with our family furniture and my cabinets, and the garden has been restored, with more than a thousand species planted as I arranged them.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today