Kampinos National Park — inland dunes and marshes on Warsaw's doorstep

A forest on the edge of the capital

The park was established on 16 January 1959 to protect the largest woodland in Mazovia. It covers 385.44 km² and, after Biebrza, is the second largest national park in Poland; a buffer zone of nearly 37,800 hectares absorbs the development pressure coming from the metropolitan area. Headquarters are in Izabelin, right at the forest edge and served by Warsaw suburban buses.

The forest lies in the ancient valley of the Vistula, in the fork between the Vistula and the Bzura. From the centre of Warsaw to the first trailhead takes under an hour, a proximity to a major city that no other Polish national park shares. Around a million people visit each year, very unevenly spread: the eastern entrances near Truskaw and Laski are crowded at weekends, while the western end towards Sochaczew stays almost empty even in July.

Since 2000 the area has been part of the world network of UNESCO biosphere reserves under the name Puszcza Kampinoska, and it is also a Natura 2000 site.

Dunes and bogs arranged in belts

The landscape dates from the end of the last glaciation. The Vistula, then flowing in a far wider bed, left behind sand that the wind piled into dune ridges, some more than ten metres high with clearly readable slopes. This is the largest and best preserved inland dune system in Poland, and undisturbed dune fields of this kind have become rare anywhere in continental Europe.

Between the sand ridges lie waterlogged hollows, and the whole forms a distinctive pattern: two dune belts and two marsh belts running east to west, parallel to the old river course. Crossing the forest means switching between dry pine woodland on a dune crest and black alder carr where water stands over the path for much of the spring.

Woodland covers almost three quarters of the park, mostly pine on sand; the hollows hold alder carr and riparian forest, and the better soils oak-hornbeam stands. More than a thousand vascular plant species have been recorded, among them the rare black birch, a variety of silver birch treated as one of the emblems of the forest.

Moose, beaver, lynx

• Moose — reintroduced in 1951, now a permanent resident of the marsh belts and the animal in the park's emblem; dusk at the edge of a wet meadow gives the best chance of a sighting.
• European beaver — back since 1980 and now the main agent deciding water levels across the forest.
• Lynx — reintroduced in 1992; visitors effectively never see one, though tracks show up in snow.
• Birds — over two hundred species recorded and around one hundred and fifty breeding, with cranes nesting in the bogs.
• Bats — seventeen species, using hollow old trees and abandoned buildings along the forest edge.
• Insects — more than two thousand described species, many of them tied to decaying timber.

Palmiry and the memory of the forest

Trackless ground, bogs and the absence of usable roads made this forest a refuge for fighters as far back as the January Uprising of 1863. The same qualities defined its role under German occupation.

Between 1939 and 1941 the Germans used a clearing near Palmiry as a site of mass executions; more than two thousand people were killed there, many of them members of the Warsaw intelligentsia, as part of a campaign aimed at Poland's educated classes. After the war the clearing became a mausoleum cemetery with a museum — the quietest place in the park and one of the most important memorial sites in Mazovia.

In the summer of 1944 the Home Army's Kampinos Group, more than three thousand strong, was stationed near the village of Wiersze, holding an area then called the Independent Republic of Kampinos. After dozens of engagements the unit was broken up near Jaktorów on 29 September 1944. Graves and stone tablets from those years still stand along the trails, often where no village remains at all.

Getting there and getting around

• By suburban bus — Warsaw city lines reach Izabelin, Truskaw and Laski, dropping you at several trailheads; the simplest option without a car.
• By car — from the east via Izabelin, from the south via Leszno, from the west via Sochaczew; the car parks at main entrances fill up on weekend mornings.
• By train — stations at Sochaczew and Modlin sit on opposite edges of the forest, with a bus connection onwards.
• By bike — a marked cycling loop circles the park over nearly one hundred and fifty kilometres, with several shortcut options.
• On foot — some 360 kilometres of marked trails and ten educational paths; the terrain is flat, which makes day stages long, and there is almost no drinking water en route.

Practical notes

A lowland park needs different planning from a mountain one. There are no viewpoints to orient yourself by, and kilometre after kilometre of pine forest looks much the same, so a map and a charged phone matter more than fitness. Sandy tracks are slower going than the elevation profile suggests.

In spring and after long rain the marsh belts flood and parts of the paths need rubber boots. July and August bring mosquitoes that are genuinely trying in the alder carr. Early spring and October are the most comfortable times to walk here.

The visit combines well with the Palmiry memorial to the north, with Żelazowa Wola, Frédéric Chopin's birthplace a few kilometres west of the park, and with the sprawling fortress at Modlin across the Vistula.

How to get there and practical info

Location

Kampinos Forest in the ancient Vistula valley, Mazovian Voivodeship, bordering Warsaw to the west; headquarters in Izabelin

Area

385.44 km² — the second largest national park in Poland; buffer zone of nearly 37,800 hectares

Established

1959

Protection status

national park, UNESCO biosphere reserve since 2000, Natura 2000 site

Trails

about 360 km of walking trails, ten educational paths, a cycling loop around the park

Time needed

three hours for a short loop, up to two days to cross the forest

Current opening times and tickets

official park website

When to go