History of the facility

In 1893-1904, at the behest of Roman and Elizabeth of Radziwill Potocki, the Viennese company Griedl built a Palm House (dismantled after World War I) in the park opposite the Dressage Hall.
It gathered many plants from other continents. At its back, horticulturist Alois Philipp erected a greenhouse, which initially served as a base for the Palm House. Many plants were grown and bred here, including orchids, from which the greenhouses took their name.

The orchidarium was admired in 1923. Ferdinand, King of Romania with his wife Queen Mary, and four years later Ignacy Moscicki, President of Poland. In 1937 it was visited by George, Duke of Kent, who was on a several-day visit to Lancut with his wife Princess Marina.

After World War II, the Orchidery was taken over by the State Agricultural Farm, which continued growing orchids until the 1980s. Later, the new owner of the greenhouse stopped heating and caring for the Orchidarium, which began to rapidly fall into disrepair. The museum purchased part of the historic orchid collection, and in April 1994 took over the completely devastated Orchidarium. Efforts to restore it to its former glory began. The first stage was the construction of a new boiler house in 2000-2002. In 2004, preparations began for the reconstruction of the greenhouses and their development. The project called "Revitalization of the historic buildings of the Manege, Casino and Orchid Shop" carried out in 2007-2009 was co-financed with funds from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism. The former function of the Orchid House has been restored and once again pleases the eyes of lovers of these beautiful and exotic flowers.
Orchidarium currently
The orchidarium consists of an exhibition part open to tourists, a cultivation part not open to visitors and a summer cafe. The facility is equipped with modern equipment for maintaining optimal growing conditions for this very demanding group of plants. The exhibition greenhouse presents many types and species of orchids. The most attractive plants, which are in bloom, go there. For the rest of the year they are grown in one of the three back greenhouses, under conditions appropriate to the climatic zone of origin. In the exhibition section one can see both terrestrial orchids (growing on the ground), lithophytes (growing on rocks) and arboreal orchids (growing on tree branches) called epiphytes. Both modern hybrids bred by man and botanical orchids shaped by nature are gathered here.
The most valuable group are historical species and varieties of orchids from the pre-war collection of the Potocki family and those listed in the famous study "Reichenbachia" from the 19th century, held in the collection of the Castle Library in Łańcut.

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