Parki i przyroda: Chorzów

Parks and nature in Chorzów: the Silesian Park, Rosarium, Rose Park, Żabie Doły and a beech forest. See where to walk among the greenery.

Chorzów is one of the greenest cities of the conurbation, although most of its parks grew on former mining and steelworks land. The largest, the Silesian Park, covers around five hundred and thirty-five hectares, and on the city's edges lie nature complexes where you can watch birds and walk in a beech forest.

Which places in the Silesian Park are worth a stop?

In the Silesian Park, which covers around 535 hectares, you can visit the Rosarium, ride the park railway, see the gate by the zoo entrance and look at the Kapelusz hall. The park lies entirely in Chorzów, and a route fits easily into a free day.

The Silesian Park dates from a 1950 decision and rose on former industrial ground; one of its initiators was General Jerzy Ziętek. Today it has forests, gardens, a zoo and a planetarium, and its story is told in an article on the road from the 1950 decision to 535 hectares. The Rosarium opened in 1968. The garden has about three hundred rose varieties arranged in a honeycomb pattern.

The park railway has run since 1957 and carries passengers across the region's largest urban park; over time it changed gauge and rolling stock. At the main zoo entrance stands a stone gate with a cast-iron lion, brought from Świerklaniec in the 1950s. Kapelusz is a modernist exhibition hall of 1968, designed by Jerzy Gottfried and entered on the monuments register in 2016. It is a building to look at from outside and during events, not a park.

Which city parks in Chorzów are worth visiting besides the Silesian Park?

Beyond the Silesian Park, choose Rose Park with its rose garden and ponds, Hutników Park, the oldest in the city, and the hill of Reden Hill Park. Each has its own character and history.

Rose Park covers about ten hectares and was created in 1926-1930. A geometric rose garden fills the northern part, and in the middle lie two ponds, Mały and Duży Leopold, set in an old sand quarry. Hutników Park is the oldest park in Chorzów, laid out in the early 1870s on the initiative of Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck. It measures about two and a half hectares and is a listed monument.

Reden Hill Park lies on a hill 321 metres above sea level, one of the highest points in the city. A monument to Count von Reden has stood here since 1853, and next door is the Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park, covered in an article on open-air museums of Silesia.

Where can you see wild nature in Chorzów?

Wild nature is found in two complexes on the city's edges: Żabie Doły and Uroczysko Buczyna. Both shelter species that are rarely met in the heart of a conurbation.

Żabie Doły covers 226.2 hectares where Chorzów meets Bytom and Piekary Śląskie. The reservoirs are former flotation settling ponds, surrounded by subsidence hollows and spoil heaps, and today they are an important habitat for waterbirds. Uroczysko Buczyna takes in 65.32 hectares on the border with Ruda Śląska, with an acidic lowland beech wood and veteran trees. Species rare on a national scale grow there. More background is in a text on reserves and green enclaves of the conurbation.

After the greenery, look at the industrial sites of Chorzów, the places for children and the atmospheric corners. For a full overview, see the page on Chorzów.

Frequently asked questions

How big is the Silesian Park in Chorzów?

It covers about 535 hectares and is one of the largest urban parks in Europe. It was created from 1950 on former mining land.

Where is there a rose garden in Chorzów?

There are two: the Rosarium in the Silesian Park, with about three hundred varieties of roses, and the geometric rose garden in Rose Park.

Which park in Chorzów is the oldest?

Hutników Park, laid out in the early 1870s. It is a listed monument.

Where can you watch waterbirds in Chorzów?

In Żabie Doły, a landscape-and-nature complex, 226.2 ha, where Chorzów meets Bytom and Piekary Śląskie.