Park Oruński im. Emilii Hoene, Gdańsk

Orunia Park is a historic municipal park unfolding through the valley of the Orunia Stream. As you walk its paths, the water links an upper pond with a smaller lower pond, and a cascade gives the landscape a changing rhythm. The park covers 19 hectares and is the third-largest municipal park in Gdańsk, while also being the largest of the city’s historical parks.

Its story reaches back to a hunting lodge marked on a map from 1599. In the early 17th century, Mayor Bartłomiej Schachmann shaped the grounds with ponds and running water. After 1630, Johann Zierenberg turned the estate into a Renaissance garden where artists and prominent guests met.

Later, botanist Gottfried Reyger created a botanical garden here, raising pineapples, citrus fruit, and coffee, and recording the flowering seasons of 360 plants. As you continue along the water, look for the mature beech-covered hills, willows beside the ponds, and the avenue planted with 40 lime trees in the 1840s. Emilia Hoene gave this private garden to the city in 1918. The park now carries her name, while its recent renewal brought back historic character and added the Orana amphitheatre.