Palace Park in Białowieża

All that remains of the tsars' palace in Białowieża is a red-brick kitchen gate, but the park that surrounded it has survived almost intact. The Palace Park was laid out around 1900 around the hunting residence of the Russian tsars; today it covers about 50 hectares and belongs to Białowieża National Park. It holds the village's oldest monument, its oldest building and the museum that makes the best introduction to the primeval forest.

From a royal lodge to a tsar's residence

Hunting here goes back a long way. In the time of the Vasa kings a hunting lodge stood on the site of today's park, and in the 18th century a new royal lodge was built. In September 1752 King Augustus III of Poland stayed there with Queen Maria Josepha and their sons; a sandstone obelisk with inscriptions in Polish and German commemorates the great hunt. In 1889 Tsar Alexander III ordered a new palace to be built on the site of the royal lodge, completed in 1894. The palace burned down in 1944 and was demolished in 1961. Its site is now occupied by the national park headquarters and the Nature and Forest Museum.

An English landscape park

The park was designed by Walerian Kronenberg, one of the most sought-after garden designers of his day. It is a landscape park in the English style: open glades with single trees and small groups set against dense woodland. Of the roughly 200 species of trees and shrubs planted at the time, nearly 90 survive. At the foot of the palace hill, in the valley of the Narewka river, two ponds with islands were dug.

What to look for

• The 1752 obelisk on the causeway between the ponds – Białowieża's oldest monument.
• The kitchen gate – the only surviving part of the tsar's palace.
• The wooden manor of 1845, built for the governor of Grodno – the oldest building in Białowieża, now the national park's nature education centre.
• A group of pedunculate oaks on the palace hill, more than 250 years old.
• Tsarist-era buildings: the Administration House, the Marshal's House, the Huntsmen's House, the Chauffeurs' House and the Bath House.

Tripto tip

The national park suggests about 1 hour for a walk through the park; outdoor educational games can be downloaded from its website. The Nature and Forest Museum – the oldest museum in any Polish national park – presents the forest's plant communities on two levels, and the permanent exhibition takes about an hour. Note that from 8 June to the end of October 2026 the museum's viewing tower is closed while the roof is repaired. The park also warns that European bison may wander through the Palace Park – don't approach them; back away calmly.