Kraków Zoo

Kraków Zoo is not in a city park but on Pustelnik Hill in the middle of Wolski Forest, about 8 km from the Main Market Square. Its 20 hectares are home to around 1,500 animals from more than 270 species, over a hundred of them classed as endangered or threatened. The zoo has been open since 1929, when President Ignacy Mościcki attended the opening.

History: from lions at Wawel to a zoo in the forest

People in Kraków were looking at exotic animals long before the zoo existed. The first record dates from 1406, when a pair of lions was brought from Florence, and a royal menagerie with monkeys, camels, lions and leopards was kept at Wawel. It declined after King Sigismund III Vasa moved the court to Warsaw. The idea of a zoo in Wolski Forest, near the Camaldolese monastery at Bielany, came from members of the Kraków branch of the Copernicus Society of Naturalists. The zoo opened on 6 July 1929 with 94 mammals, 98 birds and 12 reptiles, and its first director, Antoni Koziarz, ran it until 1966. During the Second World War the zoo came under German administration and many animals were sent to zoos in Germany.

What to see

• Lions, zebras, flamingos and penguins — the animals the zoo itself features as its headliners.
• The bird house with its new bird exhibition.
• Public feeding sessions — the zoo publishes the schedule on its website, and they are the best chance to see the animals active.
• Species that have bred in Kraków, including snow leopards, leopards, jaguars, maned wolves, chimpanzees, lar gibbons and fennec foxes. In 2014 an Andean condor hatched here and was raised by its own parents.

Interesting facts

Kraków Zoo is a member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) and of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). It welcomes more than 500,000 visitors a year. Wolski Forest, where the zoo stands, covers 419 hectares and is dominated by oak, beech and birch, so your walk between enclosures is a shady one, and the paths are hilly.

Tripto tip

The zoo is open every day, all year round. According to its website the main ticket office is open 9:00–16:00, and you can stay until 17:00. The summer price list (1 April–31 October) gives PLN 48 for a standard ticket, PLN 40 reduced and PLN 160 for a 2+2 family ticket; in winter the prices are PLN 40, 34 and 132. Children under 3 go free. Tickets can be bought online, and it is worth checking prices and hours just before your visit. The easiest way to get here is bus 134 from the Cracovia Stadion stop, which ends right at the zoo gate. The car park by the gate (35 spaces) is open on weekdays only, because cars are banned from Wolski Forest at weekends and on public holidays; on those days leave your car at the Łysa Góra car park on ul. Kukułcza, about 1 km from the zoo. Allow 2–3 hours and wear comfortable shoes, and afterwards walk about 1.5 km to Piłsudski Mound.