Description of the attraction
The Tunduru Landscape Garden, located in the center of the Mozambican capital Maputo, was called the Vasco da Gama City Garden before independence was declared. The area of the Tunduru garden is 64 thousand square meters. m, which makes it one of the largest in Mozambique.
In 1885, in Lorenzo Markis, as Maputo was then called, the Society of Flora Lovers was founded, which set itself the task of creating a picturesque city park. After several meetings with the governor of the colony, the Society was allocated 13 hectares of land for good purposes to the west of the official residence of the President of Mozambique, the Ponta Vermelha Palace. To work on the design of the future botanical garden, the architect Thomas Hanni, who already had experience in designing gardens, was invited. In 1887, most of the plants had already been planted.
By 1897, the park was surrounded by a fence and a large gate was installed at its entrance. In 1924, on the 400th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's death, the old gate to the park was replaced with a new one, created in the Manueline style. We can see them now.
In 1975, after Mozambique declared its independence, the botanical garden received its current name in honor of the Tanzanian region of Tunduru - the homeland of many fighters for the freedom of the people from the Portuguese colonialists.
In the following decades, Tunduru Park, which housed several greenhouses with exotic plants, a statue of the "Temple of the Four Goddesses" and some other attractions, was abandoned. Over time, he found himself in a deplorable state. The question of restoring the park was raised in 2012, but only a year later builders and botanists began to work here. The city government, the National Institute of Tourism and the mining company have taken over the financing of the park's reconstruction.
