New Glasshouse of the Zabrze Municipal Botanical Garden (Miejski Ogród Botaniczny w Zabrzu)

The Zabrze botanical garden was drawn up in 1936 by Fritz Berckling, head of the city's green spaces, in what was then called Hindenburg. Planned as a "central botanical school garden" on the site of a municipal brickworks, it opened to the public at the end of June 1938. The greenhouses, finished in September 1939, formed a four-part building: a palm house measuring 16.2 m by 7.3 m and 5.1 m high, two twin greenhouses (hot and cold) of 11.9 m by 3.1 m, and a brick service section with a workshop, boiler room and coke store. Between 1947 and 1953 the palm house gained a perpendicular annex; in 1993 the coke and coal stoves were replaced by a gas boiler.

Replacing these houses was prepared over many years. A 2021 design-and-build tender produced no award; in 2022 the design went to An Archi Group of Gliwice, and in 2023 the city secured 30 million złoty in state funding toward a total investment of 48 million. Design work ended in February 2024. The site was handed to Budimex on 9 August 2024; by September the demolition of the old German-era greenhouses was under way, while the garden stayed open. The glazed structure appeared in July 2025, works passed the halfway mark in October 2025, and by August 2026 the large plants were in place. Opening is announced for early 2027, with the project formally closing in February 2027; a 2024 article still spoke of the end of 2027.

The new glasshouse, designed by the Gliwice firm An Archi Group, is a single volume more than 10 m high, more than twice the height of the 1939 palm house (5.1 m). The regional broadcaster TVP3 Katowice reports that the glazing uses a glass technology chosen to help plants grow, supplemented by additional lighting; the climate is fully computerised, and the garden's staff have been trained to run it. A mezzanine allows the plantings to be seen from above, as a video published by the garden shows.

The glasshouse comes with an educational and technical building: an environmental education centre with a small conference room and workshop rooms, plant production workshops and staff facilities. The scheme also covers rebuilding the gas boiler house, a new access road and the renewal of the ventilation, electrical, central heating and water networks. The city announces tropical plant displays inside the glasshouse and a space designed for cacti, as well as a café surrounded by greenery.

Before the works, the former palm house showed plants from Australia, Asia and South America, with a display that changed almost every year, together with aquariums and a small pond of aquatic plants. The cactus house held many cacti and other succulents (Euphorbiaceae, Crassulaceae, Agavaceae, Liliaceae, Aizoaceae, Asclepiadaceae). A 2024 press article mentions about 5,000 plants of some 350 exotic species and cultivars across these houses.

In the new glasshouse, local press reported in August 2026 the arrival of date palms, Japanese loquats and, above all, banana trees and ficus almost 7 m tall, which had been kept in halls at Żory and were planted in prepared basins. The smaller tropical species were still to be added. Internet users nicknamed the place the "tropical Las Vegas", a phrase the garden itself has repeated. The scheme also provides for a display of cacti and other succulents.

The glasshouse stands in the southern part of the garden, towards ul. Botaniczna; the garden faces the municipal stadium where Górnik Zabrze play. It is open only from 1 May to 31 October, and the garden's announcements mention changed hours on some match days.

Close by are a French-style botanical section, an English-style landscape park, a rose garden planted in 2004 (2,500 roses in 64 varieties), a small oriental garden and the national collection of żurawki (Heuchera).