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Only a few kilometres from the administration border of Warsaw, Kampinos National Park is probably the only such big natural complex in the world located in the “suburbs” of a two-million city.
Kampinos National Park protects remains of the former Mazowsze Forest. Its landscape is dominated by two elements: marshes and neighbouring dunes. Dunes in Kampinos are one of the best maintained inland dune complexes in Europe. The dunes are covered with pine forest, and partially exposed. Biggest exposure of the dunes, so called Grochalskie Piachy in the northern part of the Park reminds more a desert than a landscape in Central Poland.
In the Park area, 22 reserves have been created, of which the most famous and precious from the nature point of view is Sieraków marsh reserve, surrounded by tourist routes starting from Sieraków, Dziekanów Leśny and Dąbrowa. The centre of the reserve is an extensive marsh of Cichowąż, surrounded by sand dune hills. Isolation of the reserve causes that it is a habitat of rare plant species and numerous animal species. A plant curiosity is a small shrub – Leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata) – a relic of ice age. In the reserve you can meet elks, black storks and listen to clanging of very timid cranes.
In 1992, a programme of lynx reintroduction was started. Today, there are approximately 10 lynx living in the wild. Elk is very numerous. There’s an interesting curiosity – the thickest tree in Poland – a poplar with circumference above 11 meters, growing in Leszno.
Mazowsze Forest reach in wood has been well known and valued for a long time. Here mast pines were cut down and floated by Vistula river to Gdańsk. Considering its proximity to Warsaw, Kampinos Forest was an area of frequent military activities. There are mementoes of these times such as Sosna Powstańców 1863 roku (Pine of Insurgents of 1863) or a cemetery of Nazi execution victims in Palmiry. Every year in Brochów there is a recreation of Battle of the Bzura, the biggest battle of the September Campaign, which was fought by Polish armies Poznań and Pomorze against German 8th and 10th Army of South Group.
More than 360 kilometres of hiking trails were marked in Kampinos National Park. The main trail goes latitudinally in the middle of the Forest from Dziekanów, through Wiersze to Brochów on the western border of the Forest, and has a length of more than 50 kilometres. Bicycle tourism is difficult because of the sandy ground. Therefore, 140-kilometre Kampinos Bicycle Route is led on the outside part of the Park.
Sandy Kampinos routes ensure great conditions for cross-country running and nordic walking, and in winter for cross-country skiing.
Additional attractions near the Park:
• Żelazowa Wola, birth place of Frédéric Chopin;
• Brochów, fortified church, place of Chopin’s baptism and wedding of his parents;
• Modlin Stronghold;
• Romanesque monastery in Czerwińsk by Vistula river;
• Narrow-gauge train from Sochaczew to Wilcze Tułowskie on the western end of Kampinos Forest;
• Remains of Olędrzy settlements – evangelical church in Nowy Secymin.
In 2000, Kampinos National Park was entered into UNESCO list as a biosphere reserve.
