The Karkonosze National Park ( pl, Karkonoski Park Narodowy) is a

National Park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

in the Karkonosze Mountains in the

Sudetes The Sudetes ( ; pl, Sudety; german: Sudeten; cs, Krkonošsko-jesenická subprovincie), commonly known as the Sudeten Mountains, is a geomorphological subprovince in Central Europe, shared by Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. They consi ...

in southwestern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, along the border with the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. The

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

is located in

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship, or Lower Silesia Province, in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. The voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Wrocław, Legnica, Wałbr ...

, in the highest part of the

. It was created in 1959 to cover an area of 55.10 km². Today it is slightly larger at , of which 17.18 km² is strictly protected. The majority of the park area, around 33.80 km², consists of forests. In 1992 Karkonosze National Park, together with the neighbouring Czech

Krkonoše National Park Krkonoše National Park ( cs, Krkonošský národní park, often abbreviated as KRNAP) is a national park in the Liberec and Hradec Králové regions of the Czech Republic. It lies in the Krkonoše Mountains which is the highest range of the ...

, became part of the Krkonose / Karkonosze biosphere

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US ...

under

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

’s Man and the Biosphere (MaB) programme. (See
UNESCO brochure
in

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

). Also, 40 hectares of peat bogs were designated a

Ramsar Ramsar may refer to: * Places so named: ** Ramsar, Mazandaran, city in Iran ** Ramsar, Rajasthan, village in India * Eponyms of the Iranian city: ** Ramsar Convention concerning wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran ** Ramsar site, wetland listed i ...

international wetland site.

Geography

The Karkonosze Mountains are the highest range of the much broader

mountains A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher th ...

stretching horizontally from south-western Poland along the northern border of the Czech Republic to eastern Germany. Its highest peak is Śnieżka at above sea level, forming a triangle with (similarly sounding) Śnieżnik, , as well as Ślęża peak, further apart. They are connected by a red hiking trail only for qualified tourists. The characteristic features of its landscape are the glacial kettles with boulders and ponds hidden inside. Weathered granite rocks shaped like mushrooms or maces can also be found on the mountainsides. The Krkonose/Karkonosze Mountains are situated on the division of the European

water system A water supply network or water supply system is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes the following: # A drainage basin (see water purification – sou ...

between the basins of two major rivers – the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

and the

Oder The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows ...

– which means that it also separates the basins of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

and

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

. Many of the Karkonosze's streams come down the hills, creating waterfalls, the largest of which in the Polish part of the mountains (300 m) is created by the Łomniczka stream. There are about 100 various birds living in the park, the most numerous of animal species living there. In the higher parts of the mountains there are fewer species of them; in the lower levels there are 100 varieties, but in the peaks there are not more than 10. The park has four species of

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

, six species of

amphibian Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbo ...

s, and five species of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalia ...

s. The park's attraction are

mouflon The mouflon (''Ovis gmelini'') is a wild sheep native to Cyprus, the Caspian region from eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. It is thought to be the ancestor of all modern domestic sheep breeds. Taxonomy ''Ovis gmelini'' was the sc ...

s, brought here at the beginning of the 20th century. Karkonosze National Park is visited by more than 1.5 million tourists yearly. They can use 112 kilometres of walking paths, 10 ski lifts and 12 guest houses. The park has its headquarters in the town of

Jelenia Góra Jelenia Góra (pron. ; Polish: ; german: Hirschberg im Riesengebirge; Exonym: ''Deer Mountain''; szl, Jelyniŏ Gōra) is a historic city in southwestern Poland, within the historical region of Lower Silesia. Jelenia Góra is situated in the Low ...

Gallery

File:Karkonosze - Strzecha Akademicka.jpg, Strzecha Akademicka File:Karkonoski Park Narodowy – Wodospad Kamieńczyka 02.jpg, Kamieńczyk Waterfall File:Czarcia Ambona i Śnieżne Stawki.jpg, Czarcia Ambona File:Czeska Kładka na ścieżce do Schroniska pod Łabskim Szczytem.jpg, Czeska Kładka File:Ścieżka wśród kosodrzewiny.JPG, Mugo pine File:Karkonosze - Samotnia - panoramio.jpg, Samotnia mountain chalet File:Śnieżka z zachodu.jpg, Śnieżka Mountain File:Karkonosze-Samotnia i Maly Staw.jpg, Mały Staw File:Czarny Kocioł Jagniątkowski, Karkonosze.jpg, Czarny Kocioł Jagniątkowski

References

External links

Karkonoski National Park official website

* Opera Corcontica - Scientific Journal from the Krkonoše National Park {{authority control National parks of Poland Biosphere reserves of Poland Ramsar sites in Poland Protected areas established in 1959 Sudetes Parks in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Jelenia Góra 1959 establishments in Poland Karkonosze County

Geography

See also

Gallery

References

External links