Tropical Greenhouses: 14 Indoor Jungles to Warm Up in Europe This Winter
By the Verrière editors · Published on September 30, 2026
Between November and March, a tropical greenhouse is one of the few outings where you take your coat off. Here, among the 166 greenhouses in the Verrière atlas, are the ones in Europe that deliver the strongest dose of humid heat and lush vegetation — from the vast immersive jungles of zoos to the historic palm houses of botanical gardens.
The great immersive jungles
Here you don't walk past beds behind glass: you walk through the forest. These halls, often built by zoos or parks, recreate a whole ecosystem — streams, waterfalls, birds and sometimes free-roaming primates. Allow at least half a day, and arrive early at weekends.
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Eden Project
🇬🇧 Bodelva, Cornwall, United Kingdom · 2001
A dead clay pit reborn as a rainforest under bubbles.
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Gondwanaland
🇩🇪 Leipzig Zoo, Germany · 2011
Europe's largest tropical hall, where you cross the jungle by canoe in the heart of Saxony.
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Burgers' Bush
🇳🇱 Burgers' Zoo, Arnhem, Netherlands · 1988
The first fully enclosed rainforest at this scale, since imitated by zoos around the world.
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Masoala-Halle
🇨🇭 Zurich, Switzerland · 2001–2003
An entire Madagascan rainforest under a single arched roof.
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Edenya
🇧🇪 Pairi Daiza, Brugelette, Belgium · 2026
Opened in 2026, the world's largest tropical greenhouse houses hippopotamuses, jaguars and manatees under glass.
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Randers Regnskov (Tropical Zoo)
🇩🇰 Randers, Denmark · 1996
A zoo built entirely under glass domes, devoted to the tropical forests of Asia, Africa and America
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Regenwaldhaus
🇦🇹 Tiergarten Schönbrunn (Vienna Zoo), Austria · 2002
An Asian rainforest slope recreated under glass, at the heart of the world's oldest zoo.
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Regenwaldhaus
🇩🇪 Krefeld Zoo, Krefeld, Germany · 1998
At Krefeld Zoo, a barrier-free tropical greenhouse where animals roam freely
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The historic palm houses of botanical gardens
More intimate, these 19th-century iron-and-glass greenhouses and their contemporary cousins hold first-rate botanical collections. You come as much for the architecture as for the plants, and they are easy to see in an hour or two in the heart of a big city.
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Grandes Serres du Jardin des Plantes
🇫🇷 Paris, France · 1833–1836
The secret backdrop for the imagined jungles painted by Henri Rousseau, the 'Douanier'.
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Great Glasshouses of the Parc de la Tête d'Or
🇫🇷 Lyon, France · 1877–1880
Nicknamed the 'cathedral of glass and steel', they hold a cycad planted at the 1883 opening — the botanical garden's oldest resident.
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Großes Tropenhaus
🇩🇪 Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden, Germany · 1905–1907
A permanent equatorial microclimate since 1907.
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Palmenhaus Schönbrunn
🇦🇹 Vienna, Austria · 1881–1882
45,000 panes of glass for three climates under a single roof.
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Serre Fata Morgana
🇨🇿 Prague Botanical Garden, Troja, Czech Republic · 2004
Three climates and a 6-meter waterfall along a single path.
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Giardino della Biodiversità
🇮🇹 Padua, Italy · 2014
Five biomes under glass, in the world's oldest university botanical garden.
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166 botanical and historic greenhouses, across 59 countries, organized by continent in the complete catalogue.
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