The Bieszczady National Park

The Bieszczady National Park covers an area of approximately 29,202 ha and is the largest mountain national park in Poland. The park was established in 1973 to protect the most valuable natural part of the Eastern Carpathians.

About 85% of the Park area is covered by forests with a high degree of naturalness, among which the dominant plant community became the Carpathian beech forest. Unique mountain meadows emerge from this forest "sea", makes up about 6.6% of the area. The park with its buffer zone is the most valuable in Poland and one of the most valuable animal refuges in Europe. You will find here complete set of large and medium-sized predators and numerous populations of ungulates.

The unique values of the Park are:

• typical landscape of these mountains with a characteristic arrangement of plants and climate levels,
• parts of the primeval Carpathian forest,
• unique, meadow plant communities,
• well-preserved raised bogs,
• East-Carpathian and Alpine plant species,
• refuges for large mammals and birds of prey,
• rare and endemic invertebrate species,
• traces of material culture.

The Bieszczady National Park is part of the tripartite International Biosphere Reserve "Eastern Carpathians". It is also one of the biggest polish part of European Natura 2000 network. Park importance is underlined by the European Diploma awarded by the Council of Europe in 1998, also in 2021 vast parts of the beech forests were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List entitled: "Ancient and primeval beech forests of Carpathians and other regions of Europe”.