Podyjí National Park ( cs, Národní park Podyjí) is a national park in the

South Moravian Region The South Moravian Region ( cs, Jihomoravský kraj; , ; sk, Juhomoravský kraj) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia (an exception is Jobova Lhota which trad ...

of 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 ...

. Adjacent to Austria's

Thayatal National Park Thayatal National Park (german: Nationalpark Thayatal) is a 13.3 km2 Austrian national park located in the Lower Austrian border area with the Czech Republic. It connects to the Czech Podyjí National Park. The Thayatal with its steep hil ...

on the border, together they are referred to as the Inter-National park. Podyjí is one of the Czech Republic's four national parks. It protects near-natural forests along the deep Dyje River valley. The well-preserved state of the

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

of the park is cited as being unique in

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

Legal status

Podyjí National Park is one of the four national parks of the Czech Republic. It has an area of and buffer zone of . It was formally declared a national park 1 July 1991 by government order no. 164/1991. BirdLife International (IBA) has included this park under its criteria C6 covering a larger area of .

Geography

Podyjí National Park lies in an elevation range of . Its habitats include forest, grassland, arable land, shrubland, rocky areas and inland wetlands. The park is drained by the Dyje River, which flows for a length of through the park in a thickly-forested valley within the Českomoravská vrchovina uplands. The river valley's depth measures up . Land use has been established for nature conservation and research, forestry and agriculture. Park trails lead to the castle ruins of Nový Hrádek,

Hardegg Hardegg () is a town in the district of Hollabrunn in Lower Austria, Austria. It is situated in the Waldviertel region on the river Thaya, directly on the border with the Czech Republic. The Thaya valley is protected as the Thayatal National Par ...

Castle, and Vranov nad Dyjí Chateau.

Wildlife

The park's valley is home to 77 species of plants, which include

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

woods ( acidophilous and

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

type),

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornbeam ...

, beech, and

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

. Some of the perennial flowering species are ''

cyclamen ''Cyclamen'' ( or ) is a genus of 23 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. ''Cyclamen'' species are native to Europe and the Mediterranean Basin east to the Caucasus and Iran, with one species in Somalia. They gro ...

'', '' mulleins'', and '' pasque flower''. The upper plateau, which was denuded by logging and converted to cultivable land, contains grasslands. Along the river beds, reed-beds or

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

shrubs are noted. Eighteen species of orchids have been recorded. 152 species of bird have been recorded in the park. The IBA trigger species recorded are Syrian woodpecker ''(Dendrocopos syriacus)'' and Barred warbler ''(Sylvia nisoria)''. The faunal species recorded consist of 65 species of mammals. There are seven species of reptiles, which include a tree snake and

green lizard The European green lizard (''Lacerta viridis'') is a large lizard distributed across European midlatitudes from Slovenia and eastern Austria to as far east as the Black Sea coasts of Ukraine and Turkey. It is often seen sunning on rocks or lawns, ...

Viticulture

Šobes (or Hora Šobes, English: ''Šobes Hill''), one of the oldest and most renowned vineyard tracks in the Czech Republic, is situated in the park. In 2014, the company ''Znovín Znojmo'' who owns 70% of the vineyards at Šobes, started efforts to place the area on the list of UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. Šobes contains approximately 12 hectares of vineyards.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Podyji National parks of the Czech Republic Protected areas established in 1978 Geography of the South Moravian Region Tourist attractions in the South Moravian Region Central European mixed forests