Flora Olomouc Collection Greenhouses (sbírkové skleníky)

The collection greenhouses stand in the Smetana Gardens, a city park in Olomouc. The park's heritage description already mentions, in the nineteenth century, a wooden orangery moved in 1886 from the castle park at Velká Bystřice and a longitudinal greenhouse built near the restaurant; one tourism source says the palm house of 1927-1930 replaced an older glasshouse, without saying which.

The palm house was built between 1927 and 1930 and became the core of a group linked to the Flora horticultural exhibition. Its entrance portal received two sculptures by Julius Pelikán, a pupil of J. V. Myslbek. The name of its designer does not appear in the sources consulted. The building is now a listed cultural monument, as are the Smetana, Čech and Bezruč gardens.

The cactus house was added after 1960 according to one source and in the 1950s according to another; the tropical house opened on 18 August 1962 during a national horticultural exhibition. The subtropical house, originally conceived as an 'Israel garden', completes the four. The records of the collections were lost to an archive fire and then the floods of 1997, so the exact origin of many plants will remain unknown. In March 2026 the city decided to buy the greenhouses for 34 million crowns, payable until 2035, ahead of a renovation estimated at 230 million.

The palm house is about 73 metres long, 20 metres wide and 10 metres high according to the operator and the regional tourism office; another source gives 72.5 by 20 by 9 metres. Its area approaches 1,500 m². One listing describes an elegant functionalist design, a detail the other sources do not confirm. The entrance is decorated with sculptures by Julius Pelikán.

The other three houses, the cactus house, the tropical house and the subtropical house, date from after the war and bring the total area to 4,100 m², of which more than 3,000 m² is open to the public. Experts now find the load-bearing structures corroded and the heating and ventilation systems out of order; two of the collection houses are rated critical. The renovation programme, in two phases, is estimated at about 230 million crowns.

The palm house gathers hundreds of species, including about 70 palms, among them specimens more than a hundred years old that came from Moravian castle greenhouses (another source says over 150 years). Visitors see Canary Island date palms, cycads, hibiscus, bougainvillea, ficus, citrus and araucarias, and an aquaterrarium that holds a spectacled caiman named Fany.

The cactus house holds about 3,000 plants of more than 700 species, varieties and forms, with a notable collection of Astrophytum and pieces from the collection of Alberto Vojtěch Frič. The tropical house, with its pools, shows tropical water lilies, including Victoria cruziana, bromeliads and anthuriums; the subtropical house has citrus, figs, olives and carnivorous plants. The cacti reach their flowering peak in June.

The greenhouses stand in the Smetana Gardens, ten to fifteen minutes on foot from the centre of Olomouc, near the 'Výstaviště Flora' tram stop. They open from February to November; about an hour and a half covers the four houses.

The visit combines with the neighbouring botanical garden and rose garden of Flora Olomouc, the Bezruč gardens and the science centre Pevnost poznání. The Flora Olomouc exhibitions and an orchid show, 'Jewels of the Rainforest', are regular events on the site.