Tucked inside the Founder’s Garden at Zoo Leipzig, the Aquarium is one of the oldest surviving structures on the grounds, first built in 1910 and expanded with an adjoining terrarium in 1913. More than a century later, the circular brick building still greets visitors with its original facade, even though almost everything behind it has been rebuilt from the ground up.
Between 2019 and early 2022, the zoo closed the aquarium for an extensive 12.5 million euro modernization, reopening it to the public on February 11, 2022. The result pairs a preserved, historic shell with contemporary tank technology, letting guests move from a sweeping freshwater panorama tank on the ground floor to a dramatic ring-shaped tank upstairs that circles an entire room.
Stats at a Glance
- Location: Leipzig, Germany
- Opened: 1910 (terrarium added 1913)
- Reopened after renovation: February 11, 2022
- Renovation cost: About 12.5 million euros
- Size: Two-story circular (Rundbau) building
- Annual zoo visitors: About 1.9 million (2023, whole zoo)
- Famous for: 360-degree ring tank with scalloped hammerhead sharks and cownose rays
Inside the Historic Rundbau
The aquarium’s defining feature is its two-story round building, or Rundbau, where a grand staircase leads visitors up to a 360-degree ring tank. That upper-level tank wraps completely around the stairwell and is home to scalloped hammerhead sharks alongside cownose and other eagle ray species, giving guests a view of the animals from nearly every angle as they circle the room.
On the ground floor, the historic section leans into the building’s original character, focusing on tropical freshwater fish beneath a curved, roughly 11-meter glass panel that arcs overhead like a transparent ceiling. The contrast between the two levels, modern marine life up top and classic freshwater displays below, reflects how the 2019-2022 rebuild kept the shell but reimagined what lives inside it.
A Rebuild Rooted in Conservation
Zoo Leipzig has framed the renovated aquarium’s mission around conserving endangered aquatic species, with tanks arranged around tropical and subtropical marine and freshwater habitats. The project was part of the zoo’s broader push to upgrade its historic exhibits while keeping their original architecture intact, a pattern also seen in the nearby Gondwanaland tropical hall and the zoo’s more recently reopened terrarium.
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Leipzig Zoo Aquarium FAQs
How old is the Leipzig Zoo Aquarium?
The aquarium building dates to 1910, with a terrarium wing added in 1913, making it one of the oldest structures still in use at Zoo Leipzig.
When did the aquarium reopen after renovation?
It reopened to the public on February 11, 2022, following a roughly 12.5 million euro modernization carried out between 2019 and early 2022.
What animals can visitors see in the aquarium?
Highlights include scalloped hammerhead sharks and cownose rays in the upper-level 360-degree ring tank, plus tropical freshwater fish in the historic ground-floor panorama tank.
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Photo: Unbekannte Autoren und Grafiker; Scan vom EDHAC e.V. / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.