Masovian Landscape Park

The Mazowiecki Landscape Park is a protected area established in 1986 along the middle Vistula in central Poland. It lies southeast of Warsaw and covers some 157 square kilometres of core area with an 80-square-kilometre buffer zone. Its character is shaped by extensive marsh and floodplain landscapes, old pine and alder forests, and small villages on dry sand ridges between the bogs. The park is home to elk, beavers, black storks, and roughly 200 bird species, and counts among the most important breeding and resting grounds in the region. Marked hiking and cycling trails open up the landscape; in places boardwalks lead through the wetlands. For Warsaw residents the park is a nearby natural destination that very quickly leaves the noise of the capital behind.