Fryderyk Chopin Park in Gliwice

Right in the centre of Gliwice, between Sienkiewicza street and the city's east–west expressway, lies a fenced park with cast-iron lions, an oak more than two hundred years old and a palm house in the middle. Fryderyk Chopin Park was created at the end of the 19th century, when the fast-growing industrial town decided to develop as a "garden city". Each of its monuments has its own, often surprising story.

History: greenery for an industrial town

Between 1810 and 1910 the population of Gliwice grew 22-fold, from under 3,000 to almost 67,000. The town invested in green space, and the park between the Kłodnica river and the Kłodnica Canal, laid out from 1880, was a key part of those plans. In 1900 it was extended and a gardener's lodge was built, in 1901 it got its first fountain, and in 1904 a curfew was introduced for safety reasons. Damaged in 1945, it reopened in 1948.

Today the park covers 5.87 hectares, although in the 19th century it had about 8. It is surrounded by a steel fence and a hedge, and six gates lead inside.

What to see

• The Lying Lions: two cast-iron sculptures in front of the palm house, cast in 1830 at the Royal Iron Foundry in Gliwice to a design by Johann Gottfried Schadow.
• The Fryderyk Chopin monument of white Silesian marble, 6.25 m high, with a bronze medallion 96 cm across. It was unveiled in June 1949, on the centenary of the composer's death.
• The monument to the victims of wars and totalitarian regimes by Krzysztof Nitsch, from 2001.
• A pedunculate oak, a protected natural monument with a girth of 428 cm and an age of about 250 years. Maples, poplars, limes, horse chestnuts and exotic trees also grow here.
• The City Palm House in the middle of the park, whose history goes back to the first pavilions of 1880. In 1925 it gained the first pool in Silesia for the giant Amazon water lily.

Did you know?

• The Chopin monument stands on the base of a former uhlans' memorial from 1926, dedicated to the 2nd Royal Uhlan Regiment. After the war it was reworked into a monument to the composer.
• From 1890 the park was home to the Sleeping Lion, a cast-iron memorial to Prussian soldiers who died in the Gliwice field hospital after the battles of 1813. It was funded by King Frederick William IV. After 1945 the memorial was taken down and the fate of the original is unknown. Observant visitors can still spot a hollow in the lawn where it stood. A copy of the lion was placed on a small square in the city centre in 2011.

Tripto tip

Entry to the park is free. Half an hour to an hour is enough for a walk between the monuments; if you want to see tropical plants, add time for the Palm House, which operates as a separate attraction. The Upper Silesian Edge Trail runs through the park: in Gliwice it starts at the railway station and continues to the Market Square.