Karlsruhe Zoo, Municipal zoo and gardens in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Karlsruhe Zoo, called Zoologischer Stadtgarten Karlsruhe, covers 22 hectares, nine of them zoo, plus the 16-hectare Tierpark Oberwald outside the city. Its entrance is a light beige stone colonnade with round columns on square bases, blue cursive lettering "Stadtgarten Zoo" and a planter of red flowers on top. A relief on the right pillar shows a figure holding something overhead.

This facility was founded in the 1860s when breeders and local supporters brought a project to life, made possible through grand ducal backing. From this beginning grew a place that continues to combine animals and gardens.

The garden director Friedrich Ries shaped the park from 1877, and in 1899 the first rose garden opened with around 3,600 roses in 800 varieties. A Japanese garden followed from 1918, replacing the earlier rose garden laid out when the grounds were enlarged in 1914. The blue cursive lettering "Stadtgarten Zoo" on the entrance colonnade names the combined garden and zoo.

The Stadtgarten and zoo form one enclosed site with a single admission, so they cannot be visited separately. The grounds lie between the Südstadt and Südweststadt districts, north of Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof and south of the Karlsruhe Congress centre. Two municipal offices run the site: the horticultural office and the zoo administration.

The outlying Tierpark Oberwald, created in 1965 in the city forest, covers 16 hectares and was set up so that animals moved there would free space for the 1967 Federal Garden Show. It is part of the same enclosed complex as the 22-hectare main site, which holds nine hectares of zoo.