Mendel first attended school in 1831. He went to the Piarist school in Lipnik, then when he was 12 years old he began attending a grammar school in Opava. In 1840 he enrolled at the Institute of Philosophy in Olomouc. Because of his love of nature, Mendel took courses for agriculture and vine growing at the Institute of Philosophy in Brno. He studied natural sciences from 1851-1853 at the University of Vienna.