Bieszczady Mountains

Bieszczady Mountains. For many people the most beautiful mountains in Poland. Long ridges stretched from north-west to south-east direction. It is a natural and historic phenomenon on the European scale. One of not many areas where secondary wildness has appeared. Before the 2^nd World War it was one of the most densely inhabited areas of Poland. After the war it has become depopulated, deserted, forgotten, even partially forbidden. Due to that, undamaged and wild nature has survived in the Bieszczady Mountains until the present day.

At present, the large part of the Bieszczady Mountains is under protection. The Bieszczady National Park, which is the part of the Polish-Slovakian-Ukrainian East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, covers the area of 290 sq. km in the highest part of the Western Bieszczady Mountains. The large part of the Bieszczady Mountains is included to the Natura 2000 area, the Cisna-Wetlina Landscape Park exists here as well. Regional Directorate of Environmental Protection in Rzeszów keeps an eye on the Bieszczady Mountains area with special care. Thanks to active protection of wildlife you will be able to enjoy its beauty in the intact form not only today, but also in the future!

The Bieszczady Mountains were discovered for tourism in the interwar period. Then the first tourist shelter homes were created: in Sianki, Beniowa, Dydiowa or Sokole. At that time the red Beskid tourist trail from Sianki to Krynica, named after Józef Piłsudski was established. Well known artists, such as Aleksander Fredro, Edward Stachura, Jerzy Harasimowicz and Wojciech Belon were looking for rest and inspiration in the Bieszczady Mountains.

At present, mountain tourism is still one of the main attractions of the region. But not the only one: throughout five centuries the Bieszczady Mountains were the place where many generations of the Boykos, Poles and Jews used to live -  it was a peculiar cultural melting pot. The 2^nd World War , and then the displacement actions that were finished with the "Operation Vistula", changed the "face" of the Bieszczady land irreversibly. The autochthons left the land, and together with them the cultural and settlement continuity were gone. The Bieszczady, abandoned, depopulated, damaged, where the nature reclaiming from people areas that were once intensively exploited was reigning. The mountains are hiding fewer and fewer traces of the bygone times and they have become a Mecca for those who look for thrills, for tough guys and dreamers, for people with the past, but without future.

The turbulent history of the Bieszczady Mountains has left many valuable monuments of material culture, whose presence favors the popularization of the reflective tourism (discovering the traces of the past, monuments, seeking tradition).