Warsaw Zoo

During the war, people hid in the empty cages and the director's villa at Warsaw Zoo. Jan and Antonina Żabiński saved several hundred Jews this way, were honoured as Righteous Among the Nations, and their story is told in the film "The Zookeeper's Wife". Today the zoo on Ratuszowa Street in the Praga district bears their name and is one of the most visited in Poland: more than 12,000 animals of about 500 species on nearly 40 hectares beside the Vistula.

History: from menageries to a city zoo

For a long time Warsaw had no proper zoo — only private menageries, such as King John III Sobieski's at Wilanów or Mieczysław Pągowski's small zoo of 1926. A city council resolution of 14 June 1927 created the Municipal Zoological Garden in Praga, which opened to the public on 11 March 1928. Its first director was Wenanty Burdziński, founder of the zoo in Kyiv; after his death later in 1928, Jan Żabiński took over. In 1937 the elephant Tuzinka was born here — a major breeding success and a favourite of the people of Warsaw.

War and "The Zookeeper's Wife"

In September 1939 the zoo was bombed, and the staff had to shoot the predators. After the city surrendered, Lutz Heck, director of the Berlin Zoo, took the most valuable animals to Germany — Tuzinka to Königsberg, European bison and tarpans to Munich. Jan and Antonina Żabiński and their son Ryszard hid refugees on the zoo grounds, including people who had escaped the ghetto; among those who survived here was the sculptor Magdalena Gross. The story was told by Diane Ackerman in "The Zookeeper's Wife", and in 2017 the book became a film starring Jessica Chastain. In the surviving modernist villa "Under the Crazy Star", where the Żabińskis lived, an exhibition is devoted to these events. After the war Jan Żabiński rebuilt the zoo, which reopened to visitors in the late 1940s.

What to see

• The elephant house of 2003 — 6,000 m² with indoor and outdoor pools for the elephants.
• The great ape house of 2008 with gorillas and chimpanzees.
• The hippo house with shark aquarium of 2010 — you can watch the hippos underwater through glass, and next to them is a 100,000-litre marine tank, the largest single aquarium in Poland, home to the country's only sand tiger shark.
• The aviary with its free-flight hall, the reptile house with crocodiles, and the historic aquarium of 1928.
• The Eco-Village of 2023 — an educational space with wildflower meadows and insect hotels where the petting zoo used to be.

Did you know?

• All animals born in a given year get names starting with the same letter.
• In 1990 the zoo and the adjoining Praski Park were entered in the register of historic monuments.
• Since 1 January 2023 the zoo has officially been named after Antonina and Jan Żabiński. Nearly 50 of its species are part of European conservation breeding programmes (EEP).

Tripto tip

The zoo is open every day, including Sundays and public holidays, from 9:00; check closing times and ticket prices, which change with the season, on the zoo's website. Allow 3–4 hours. Come in the morning, when the animals are most active, and start with the Żabiński villa before it gets busy. The main entrance is on Ratuszowa Street, a few minutes' walk from the tram stops on Solidarności Avenue; the zoo combines easily with Praga and with the Old Town across the river.