Łódź Palm House

The Łódź Palm House is a tropical oasis in Źródliska Park, the city's oldest park: under its glass roof grow around 4,500 specimens of more than 1,100 species and varieties. The most precious are palms that remember the orangeries of Łódź's factory owners – sources differ on whether they are more than 130 or more than 150 years old. It is a short, inexpensive visit that is at its best in autumn and winter, when it is grey outside and warm, humid and green within.

History: from factory owners' orangeries to a glass pavilion

In the second half of the 19th century the palaces of Łódź's industrialists acquired gardens full of exotic plants. The economic crisis of the 1920s put an end to them – the plants went to the city greenhouses, together with collections abandoned during the First World War by tsarist officials fleeing the city. When the palms no longer fitted, in 1955 the former canteen in Źródliska Park was converted into a palm house. It opened to the public on 1 September 1956, and in 1970 the roof was raised again because the plants were pressing against the ceiling.

The most important transformation came in 1999–2003. The old building was encased in a steel-and-glass structure with Poland's first integrated heating façade, with glycol flowing through the window frames. The old walls were demolished only once the new shell was closed, because the oldest plants are rooted in the ground and could not be moved. The project cost PLN 31.6 million.

What to see

The collection is split into three pavilions with different, computer-controlled climates – a display at each entrance shows the temperature and humidity inside:

• Mediterranean – the collection of the oldest palms, from 18 species, some reaching 18 m, plus citrus, laurels, myrtles and araucarias,
• tropical – banana plants, coconut palms, screw pines, figs, more than 300 orchid taxa and ferns,
• desert – cacti, prickly pears several metres tall, aloes and other succulents.

Paths lead between the plants past a footbridge, a stream, ponds and a grotto built of volcanic tuff. There are aquariums with fish, and upstairs a small café overlooks the Mediterranean pavilion. Since 2013 a statue of Ćwirek the Sparrow from the "Fairy-Tale Łódź" series has stood by the entrance. Next door is the teaching garden (3,500 m²) with sequoias, ginkgos and rhododendrons, regarded as Łódź's first botanical garden.

Opening hours and tickets (as of October 2026)

• April–September: 10:00–18:00, October–March: 9:00–16:00; ticket desks close half an hour earlier,
• closed on Mondays, on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, 1 January, 1 November, and during the last week of March and the first week of September (maintenance),
• standard ticket PLN 16, reduced PLN 8, family (2+2) PLN 40, with the Łódź City Card PLN 11; children under 3 go free.

Tripto tips

About an hour is enough for a walk round, an hour and a half with the teaching garden and a coffee. Glasses tend to steam up in the tropical pavilion, and in winter you will soon want to shed your coat. The Palm House is at al. Piłsudskiego 61, on the east–west tram route, so it combines easily with the Księży Młyn estate and the Herbst Palace.