In 1926 Kochanowski, together with his pupils, established a botanical garden in the city park, which in 1927 received the first animals.

In 1942, local Polish resistance fighters were arrested by the Gestapo for the alleged murder of a German doctor and imprisoned along with other representatives of the intelligentsia of Grodno.

When the city turned to the occupation authorities for the release of hostages, the Gestapo chief agreed not to shoot all of the captives.

Among the captives to be shot was one Kochanowski teacher Józef Wiewiórski - the father of five or six children.

This article on a zoo, aquarium, safari park, dolphinarium, or aviary is a stub.