One of the most beautiful and largest parks in Szczecin, Kasprowicz Park, is located just outside the Old Town area. A walk took us to the “Spinach Palace of Szczecin”.
Around 1900, the park was created in honor of the Szczecin philanthropist and entrepreneur Johannes Quistorp and named “Quistorp Park”. The entrepreneur donated the adjacent Jasne Błonia Square and Arkona Forest to the city.
Residents and tourists loved to stroll through the park. There were exotic trees and shrubs to discover, a concert place attracted with offers and also for the children there was a playground and a toboggan run. There were also restaurants and a beer hall in the park.
After the Second World War the park got its present name, Kasprowicz Park. Unfortunately, the area was neglected for many years and some of the existing structures had to be demolished.
If you walk through the park today, you can walk along a small lake and discover a good 200 different species of trees and shrubs still scattered around the grounds. In addition to the native plants, Kasprowicz Park is also home to the only North American garden in Europe.
At the end of the 1970s an amphitheater for 4500 spectators was built in the park. Events are held here on a regular basis. Since 2007 there is a newly created rose garden with over 100 different varieties of roses to admire.
We really enjoyed the walk through Kasprowicz Park under the shade trees. Benches invite you to take a break, you can listen to the birds and the view of the watercourse is pure relaxation.
Monument to the deed of the Poles – Pomnik Czynu Polaków
In Kasprowicz Park, near the City Hall, there is a huge monument. The sculptor Gustaw Zemla created this impressive work, which was unveiled on the 40th anniversary of the Nazi attack on Poland (3.9.1979).
The total height of the monument is 22.5 meters. Three huge eagles, which alone weigh about 60 tons, rise high above the heads of visitors. Each of these eagles represents a generation of the Szczecin population in whose honor the monument was created. One eagle symbolizes the generation of the Polish community of Szczecin living abroad from the transition period from the 19th to the 20th century, before the war. The second eagle represents the Szczecin citizens who participated in the reconstruction of the city after the war. The third eagle is a symbol of the last generation that participated in the development of industry, health care, culture, communication and modern construction in the city.
The “Spinach Palace” or the “Green Szczecin City Hall”.
Coming from Kasprowicz Park, we crossed a street and stood in front of an open park in baroque arrangement, flanked by avenues of plane trees. On the meadows children were playing and in the shade under the trees at lunchtime people were sitting and enjoying the break. At the end of the small park stands a large green building that is affectionately called “Spinach Palace” by the people of Szczecin. Today, the city administration is located there.
In April 1924, Kommerzienrat Martin Quistorp bought the land so that the seat of the authorities of the Province of Pomerania could be built there. In the course of several years, a representative building was erected. It is divided into a main building, a west wing and two east wings. Passages under parts of the building allow direct access from the city to the park. The representative facade in neo-baroque style faces southwest and faces Armii Krajowej Square. The entire building was initially plastered in dark green. This color scheme of the building’s facades is the reason why before 1945 the building was popularly known as the Spinach Palace or Spinach House.
In the 1960s, a thin layer of cement mortar was applied to the green facade. The green house turned into a mousy gray house. When renovation work was carried out in 2013, the bright green facade was restored and Szczecin now has its Spinach Palace again.
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