Kampinos National Park (Polish: Kampinoski Park Narodowy) is a national park in east-central Poland, in the Masovian Voivodeship, near the northwest edge of Warsaw. It is Poland's second-largest national park and the only one in the Masovian Voivodeship. It has a partnership with Indiana Dunes National Park in Indiana, United States.
The idea of creating a park in the area was first suggested in the 1920s. In the 1930s, the first forest reserves were established: Granica, Sieraków, and Zamczysko. These reserves are now much larger and strictly protected.
The park was created in 1959, covering an area of 407 square kilometers (157 square miles). It includes the ancient Kampinos Forest (Puszcza Kampinoska). In January 2000, the area was added to UNESCO’s list of biosphere reserves. The park is now slightly smaller, covering 385.44 square kilometers (148.82 square miles), with 46.38 square kilometers (17.91 square miles) strictly protected. The protective zone around the park covers 377.56 square kilometers (145.78 square miles). Forests make up about 73% of the park, and the most common tree is the pine. The park’s landscapes include a mix of sand dunes, swamplands, and pine trees growing on sand, with meadows on swamps. The park’s emblem features a moose, as it is one of the three locations in Poland with the largest moose populations, along with Biebrza National Park and Polesian National Park.
Kampinoski National Park is located at the largest river junction in Poland, where the valleys of the Vistula (and its tributary, the Bzura) and the Narew (and its tributaries, the Bug and Wkra) meet. The park’s longest river, the Łasica canal, is 35 kilometers long and a tributary of the Bzura.
The park is home to about 1,400 species of vascular plants, including 74 tree species, and around 150 species of bryophytes. Together with the nearby Vistula valley, the park supports many animal species. It is estimated to host about 16,500 different animal species, though only around 4,200 have been documented by scientists so far. This suggests the park’s biodiversity is not fully understood. About 4,000 of the documented species are invertebrates, and over 200 bird species have been identified. Three mammal species have been reintroduced to the park in modern times: the moose in 1951, the Eurasian beaver in 1980, and the lynx in 1992.
Many important events in Polish history took place in the park. Reminders of the past include tombs of people who fought in the 1863 anti-Russian uprising, war cemeteries from the Polish-German war of 1939, and tombs of members of the anti-German resistance (1944–1945). At the Palmiry cemetery, many people from Warsaw who were secretly killed by Nazi German forces during 1939–1945 are buried. At Żelazowa Wola, near the park, there is a manor house where the famous composer Frédéric Chopin was born.
The park has about 360 kilometers (220 miles) of walking trails and 200 kilometers (120 miles) of cycling trails. There are also 10 educational trails that highlight special areas of the park. Some areas allow horseback riding and cross-country skiing.