Linneanum
The orangery in Uppsala’s Botanical Garden is one of the clearest buildings of Gustavian Neoclassicism. A portico of four baseless Doric columns leads into a long, light building for plants and teaching. It was Gustav III’s gift to the university.
In 1787 Gustav III gave the garden of Uppsala Castle to the university, since Linnaeus’s old garden in the town was too small and damp. The orangery was designed after an idea by the French architect and stage designer Louis Jean Desprez, and Olof Tempelman carried it through. Building began in 1788, and the house was inaugurated in 1807.
The baseless Doric columns, modelled on those at Paestum, were a radical choice: Greek antiquity was seen as more original and serious than Roman. The building was both a glasshouse for exotic plants and a place for teaching and lectures, and it is named in memory of Linnaeus. It shows how Neoclassicism in Sweden combined the science of the Enlightenment with the forms of antiquity.