Białowieża — the last lowland primeval forest and 700 free-living bison.

The Białowieża Forest is Europe's last fragment of primeval lowland forest — a woodland stretching across the Polish-Belarusian border. On the Polish side it covers about 600 km², of which Białowieża National Park (about 105 km²) is under strict protection — the oldest and one of the most valuable national parks in Poland. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 and extended in 1992 as a transboundary site with the Belarusian park.

What sets the Białowieża Forest apart from other Polish woodland? Its centuries-old natural structure. In most Polish forests the trees are of one generation, planted to a plan in the 19th and 20th centuries. Here the trees are of every age, from saplings to 400-year-old oaks. Dead wood is not cleared away (outside the managed buffer), so rotting trunks create habitats for hundreds of species of fungi, insects and birds. The forest looks chaotic — and it is exactly that chaos that makes it a unique ecosystem.

The European bison (Bison bonasus) is the emblem of the forest. After the First World War it was wiped out — the last wild bison of the forest was killed in 1919. Reintroduction began in 1929 with animals from zoos. Today some 700 bison live free on the Polish side (about 2,500 in the whole country), and the Białowieża Forest holds the largest population in Poland. Meeting a bison in the forest is possible, though rare — you are more likely to see them at the European Bison Show Reserve.

The region has a strong tsarist history. In the 19th century the forest was the hunting ground of the Russian tsars, especially Alexander II and Alexander III. In 1894 a monumental tsarist palace was built here — of wood, in a Russian rural style, with more than 100 rooms. The palace was burned in 1944 by retreating German troops; what survives is the Palace Park with its entrance gate, the old gatekeeper's lodge and the remains of the foundations. In the park stand the modern headquarters of the national park and the Nature and Forest Museum.

Getting there: from Warsaw about 3.5 hours by car (some 230 km, the S8 plus the DK19/DK66 and local roads through Białystok and Hajnówka). By train to Hajnówka (about 3 hours from Warsaw with a change), then by bus or minibus (about 30 km). There is no airport nearby — Warsaw-Modlin or Lublin are the closest (about 3.5–4 hours further). Białowieża itself is a small wooden village (about 2,000 people) — this is where you stay and where you set off into the forest.