Polesie National Park

Only 50 km northeast of Lublin lies one of the most beautiful national parks of Poland. Although it’s not a uniform area (several roads cross through the park), around a dozen villages and settlements are found within it, among them Urszulin – one of those places that are great for recharging your batteries.

If you love nature, especially watching wild avians, and are not scared by mosquitos and wetlands while preferring flatter over hillier areas for sightseeing, you will definitely love Polesie National Park!

 

Polesie National Park is a protected area and part of list of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. It spreads over wide plains with numerous lakes, swamps and bogs. Part of the park is inaccessible for visitors, but that’s not a big problem thanks to a number of lookout towers built on hiking trails and nature paths – also great for watching flocks of birds.

 

Fauna and Flora

Other than a variety of avians, these areas are occupied by elks, beavers and otters. Some of the rarer plants include orchis and insect digesters. The biggest curiosity is european pond turtle – the only species of turtle in Poland and also unfortunately the one whose presence within Polish borders is the most threatened. The park is the zone of activity of Pond Turtle Protection Center, which researches all aspects of life of this sympathetic turtle and acts to protect them during periods of egg laying and incubation.

Tourism facilities

Park touring is not just moving across generic nature paths and bicycle routes – there are also impressive swamp footbridges that can go on for kilometers among lakes. There are campsites with designated car parking zones where one can make a campfire, eat a meal and rest. The largest of them, found in Łowiszów settlement near Wytycki Lake, is fenced and has toilets and canopies available for tourists.

If you don’t have your own bicycle yet would like to tour Polesie with one, the National Park’s headquarters in Urszulin has a bicycle rental.

There is also a professional 60 km long Polesie Equestrian Trail.

Polesie National Park Museum

In Stary Załucz (5.5 km west of Urszulin) is found Didactic-Museal Center of Polesie National Park.