Zoo Greenhouses: the World's Largest Indoor Rainforests
By the Verrière editors · Published on September 30, 2026
Since the late 1980s, zoos have invented a new species of greenhouse: the immersive tropical hall, where plants and animals share the same space and visitors walk through the middle of the forest. The Verrière atlas lists about ten of them, from Leipzig to Omaha.
The great covered rainforests
These giant buildings hold whole ecosystems: trees tens of metres tall, rivers, suspension bridges and free-roaming animals. They are among the largest glazed volumes ever built for living things.
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Gondwanaland
🇩🇪 Leipzig Zoo, Leipzig, Saxony, Germany · 2011
Beneath a roof spanning 154 m, boats follow the Gamanil river through the forests of three continents.
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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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Lied Jungle
🇺🇸 Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, Omaha, United States · 1992
One of the largest indoor rainforests in the world, opened on April 4, 1992, for $15 million.
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JungleWorld
🇺🇸 Bronx Zoo, New York, United States · 1985
Partly funded by a zoo patron, a barless Asian “jungle” opened in the Bronx in 1985.
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The RainForest
🇺🇸 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Cleveland, United States · 1992
The 1992 RainForest, now Primate Forest, an indoor destination opened in October 2026: Bornean orangutans and more than 60 animal species.
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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 (Rainforest House)
🇩🇪 Krefeld Zoo, Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany · 1998
Under a timber and Plexiglas roof, most of its forty or so animal species move about with no visible barriers.
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Equatorial Dome, ZooParc de Beauval
🇫🇷 Saint-Aignan, Centre-Val de Loire, France · 2017-2020
A 38 m glass dome opened in 2020: a steel frame of about 1,000 tonnes shelters an equatorial forest and close to 25,000 animals.
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Historic and specialised zoo greenhouses
Older or more modest, these greenhouses are a reminder that zoos have always been gardens too — right down to Antwerp Zoo's 19th-century winter garden.
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Pálmaház of Budapest Zoo
🇭🇺 Budapest, Hungary · 1909–1912
Originally designed for a separate urban project on Gellért Hill, the greenhouse ended up housing Budapest Zoo's miniature jungle.
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Wintertuin (Winter Garden)
🇧🇪 Antwerp Zoo, Belgium · 1897
The winter garden of one of the world's oldest zoos, where tropical butterflies sometimes flutter beneath a 19th-century glass roof.
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Butterfly House
🇦🇺 Melbourne Zoo, Parkville, Australia · 1985
At Melbourne Zoo, a free-flight butterfly house opened on December 11, 1985.
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Wilhelma Historic Glasshouses (Kuppelhäuser)
🇩🇪 Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany · 1852–1853
Prefabricated cast-iron glasshouses of 1852-53, built to overwinter orange trees and grow the giant Victoria water lily, now aviaries.
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1157 botanical and historic greenhouses, across 76 countries, organized by continent in the complete catalogue.
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