Tierpark Berlin

Spread across roughly 160 hectares of former palace parkland in Friedrichsfelde, Tierpark Berlin is one of the largest zoos in Europe by area. It opened in 1955 as East Berlin's answer to the older Zoologischer Garten in the west, and under its founding director Heinrich Dathe it was laid out with broad, landscaped enclosures rather than tightly packed cages.

Visitors walk long avenues and open meadows between herds of hoofed animals, then reach the Alfred-Brehm-Haus, a large 1960s building known for its big cats and a tropical hall. On the grounds stands Schloss Friedrichsfelde, an eighteenth-century palace that recalls the estate the park grew from.

With nearly one and a half million visitors a year, the Tierpark still feels spacious, and its size rewards anyone happy to walk. Families and anyone interested in animals or in East Berlin's history can easily spend most of a day here.