online bulletin
| Poznan palm house |
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| Thursday, 14 January 2010 23:14 |
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Even when it is very cold and it is snowing, there is a place in Poznan, where one feels like in the tropics.
It is the Poznan palm house, one of the biggest buildings of this kind in Poland. The palm house is situated in the stylish Wilson Park only a couple of hundred metres from the main railway station in Poznan. The Poznan palm house is slowly preparing to celebrate its hundredth birthday. The first pavilion of the palm house was erected at the turn of the 1910 and 1911. It was small - it had around 500m². It consisted of the central part, where palms were presented and two wings where cacti and tropical plants collections were displayed. The palm house’s expansion began in the 1920’s. The first Polish aquarium department and a pavilion with a swimming pool, as well as crop plants department were constructed. By the end of 1920’s during the General National Exhibition – the first important international fair event in Poland – the palm house was thoroughly modernised. After the completion of works, the whole palm house consisted of seven pavilions of different sizes of the total area of almost 1,700m². Further development of the palm house was stopped by the outbreak of the Second World War. The buildings suffered minor damages during military activities. The palm house suffered more serious damages in 1945 when the Red Army was liberating the city. Practically all tropical plants which grew in the palm house were destroyed. The rebuilt palm house, however smaller than before, was put into use again in 1946. In the following years another pavilions were built. At the beginning of 1960’s the palm house had over 2,500m². Unfortunately, its development was again stopped. At the end of 1970’s on account of bad technical condition of the pavilions’ construction the whole palm house was closed for visitors. Admittedly, at the beginning of 1980’s it was decided that the palm house would be thoroughly modernised, however, on account of the economic crisis the works were seriously delayed. It was not until the end of 1992 that the Poznan palm house was put into use again. The new palm house, called the third one, has 4,600m² and consists of ten exhibition pavilions – including the aquarium department and two back rooms. In the following years the following were built: a water treatment plant, providing the buildings with water of optimum parameters for cultivation of tropical plants, modern boiler house limiting emission of harmful substances to the atmosphere and a misting system regulating the level of humidity and allowing for cultivation of demanding tropical plants. There is also a small café and a conference room in the palm house. There are almost 1100 species of plants from all over the world and 170 species of fishes and 50 species of water plants in the aquarium. The Poznan palm house is the biggest in Poland and one of the largest in Europe artificial collections of tropical flora. |
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