On July 10, 1865, the Wrocław Zoo was opened. It is the oldest zoo in Poland on current Polish lands. The area of the garden is 33 hectares. The official name of the garden is Zoo Wrocław Sp. z o.o. Ltd. At the end of 2015, the Wrocław Zoo presented over 10,500 animals (not including invertebrates) from 1,132 species (the third largest zoo in the world in this respect). It is the fifth most frequently visited zoo in Europe with a daily record of 28,300 visitors.
Main entrance gate to the Zoo, photo: Wikipedia
Historic buildings of the Wrocław Zoo
The building infrastructure of the garden includes several valuable objects representing 19th-century historicism and eclecticism. Most of the buildings from the period when the Zoo was established are the work of architects Karl Schmidt and Albert Grau.
· Bear Tower – built in 1863/64, a red brick building, originally, as the name suggests, bears were exhibited here, in the 1970s and 1980s wild boars and wolves, and at the beginning of the 21st century owls.
· House of large predators – brick, from 1874/75. From the beginning to the present, large felines have been exhibited here, with an increasing number of them being moved to newer enclosures since the beginning of the 21st century.
· Elephant House – built in 1888, brick building. In addition to elephants, hippos and rhinos were also exhibited here, which is why in German times it was called the "House of the Pachyderms". Currently, there are elephants, Nile hippos, pygmy hippos and tapirs here. The purpose of this building has not changed much since its inception.
· The restaurant building from 1885, made of brick. Currently a herpetarium.
· The monkey pavilion, made of brick, was built in 1887 in the Moorish style. It has retained its original function to this day, although a significant part of the monkeys are now exhibited in several younger pavilions and enclosures.
· The bird pavilion from 1889, has retained its function to this day. The pavilion houses rare and endangered species of birds from Southeast Asia, South America and New Guinea[6].
· The Nutria House - one of the few pre-war wooden buildings in the zoo. It was built no later than 1890 and its function, consistent with its name, has never changed.
· A wooden gate in the Japanese style, built in 1912, located in the Zoo fence on the southern side, on the Odra embankment. This is one of the entrances to the garden (open until the 1960s and since 2009)[7]
· Runs and shelters for bears and seals built in 1937/38.
· Run and shelters for baboons built in 1939 from blocks of Carboniferous granite from Strzegom. It has not changed its purpose. In 2010, about 50 Masai baboons lived here.
· A pre-war pavilion, originally inhabited by ostriches, currently by emus, cranes and marabou storks.
· Pre-war building, originally a utility building, rebuilt around 1955 into a fish pavilion with aquariums, a function it still serves today.
· Entrance gate from 1935 designed by Richard Konwiarz, a modernist paraphrase of the Berlin Brandenburg Gate.
source - Wikipedia
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