Krkonoše National Park (Czech: Krkonošský národní park, shortened to KRNAP) is a national park located in the Liberec and Hradec Králové regions of the Czech Republic. It includes most of the Giant Mountains (Czech: Krkonoše), which is the highest mountain range in the country. The park is also designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It shares a border with Karkonosze National Park in Poland.

The highest mountain in Krkonoše is Sněžka, which reaches 1,603 meters (5,259 feet). This is also the tallest mountain in the Czech Republic. The total area of the national park is 363.52 square kilometers (140.36 square miles). The protection zone of the park covers 186.18 square kilometers (71.88 square miles). The headquarters for managing the park is located in the town of Vrchlabí.

History

In 1952, the first steps to protect nature in the Giant Mountains began when state nature reserves were created. These included areas like Kotelní jámy, Pančavská louka, and Labský důl. These places were managed by nature conservationists who worked under the Regional National Committee in Hradec Králové. Some well-known conservationists at the time were Zdeněk Pilous, Jindřich Ambrož, and Josef Šourek. Their job was to check the condition of protected areas, point out harmful actions that damaged the landscape, and suggest ways to protect it better.

Conservationists faced challenges such as heavy tourism and the use of natural resources for economic purposes. The foundation for managing the park came from both the knowledge of experts and the experience of conservators who had previously worked to protect important areas. Because of their efforts, a complete system to protect the unique nature of the Giant Mountains was created. Over time, it became clear that a more complete plan was needed to protect the area, which led to the creation of the Krkonoše National Park (KRNAP).

The Krkonoše National Park was officially established on May 17, 1963, by Government Decree No. 41/1963. This happened four years after the Polish Krkonoše National Park (Karkonoski Park Narodowy) was created on January 16, 1959. In 1986, the park was expanded to include a protective zone through Government Decree No. 58/1986. The rules for the Krkonoše National Park were updated in 1991 by Government Decree No. 165/1991. This stated that the park’s purpose is to protect and improve the natural environment, especially by helping natural systems work on their own, protecting wildlife and plants, keeping the landscape’s appearance, supporting scientific research and education, and allowing tourism and recreation that does not harm the environment. The most recent changes to the park’s rules were made in 2017 through Act No. 123/2017, which updated the law on Nature and Landscape Protection (KRNAP is described in Section 15b).

Park zoning

Until 30 June 2020, the national park was divided into three protection zones: strict natural (Zone 1), managed natural (Zone 2), and marginal (Zone 3). In Zone 1, visitors were not allowed to enter areas outside marked paths. In Zones 2 and 3, people could walk freely through meadows and forests. However, skiing in forests was not allowed outside marked paths, as stated by the Forest Act.

Starting 1 July 2020, the park was divided into four care zones:
– Natural Zone (A): 7,327.6 hectares, or 20.2% of the park’s area,
– Zone Close to Nature (B): 8,106.8 hectares, or 22.3% of the park’s area,
– Zone of Concentrated Nature Care (C): 20,702.3 hectares, or 57.0% of the park’s area,
– Cultural Landscape Zone (D): 183.7 hectares, or 0.5% of the park’s area.

The new zoning system does not change how people move within the park. Instead, movement is now regulated by "quiet areas." There are eight quiet areas, and in these areas, people can only walk along marked paths. Quiet areas cover 22.2% of the park and mostly follow the borders of the original Zone 1.

In 1991, the park’s area was reduced from 385 km² to 363.52 km². The park’s borders were moved further into the mountains, and areas near towns were removed from the park and placed into a protection zone similar to a protected landscape area. In 1992, the Czech and Polish national parks were added to the UNESCO biosphere reserve network. The park includes peat bogs listed as wetlands of global importance under the Ramsar Convention. The park and its Polish counterpart, Krkonoše National Park, are recognized as transboundary parks by the EUROPARC Federation. The park’s administration is also part of the EuroSite organization and a co-founder of the Elbe Parks group.

The Krkonoše National Park is classified by IUCN as a Protected Landscape (Category V). It does not meet the international standards for a national park (IUCN Category II). The park is managed by the Krkonoše National Park Administration, which is based in Vrchlabí.

Nature

The Giant Mountains have a wide variety of natural features. The underground rock layers, changes over time, cold climate, and later warming created many different habitats where rare plants and animals live. There are about 300 types of vertebrates (animals with backbones), over 1,200 types of vascular plants (plants with tubes that carry water), and many more spore plants, such as mosses, slime molds, ferns, and lichens. Some species found in the Krkonoše Mountains are unique to this area.

Krkonoše National Park is mainly in the Giant Mountains, part of the Sudetes mountain range. The park’s highest point, Sněžka, is 1,603 meters above sea level and the tallest mountain in the Czech Republic. Evidence of the last ice age is visible throughout the park, including features like cirques (bowl-shaped valleys), glacial valleys, moraines (mounds of rock and soil), tors (rocky hills), stone seas (areas with scattered stones), and other glacial remains.

Karst features, such as caves and sinkholes, are found in the eastern part of the park, especially near Albeřice, where there are quarries. The underground rock layers of the Krkonoše National Park are very different. Most of the area is part of the Krkonoše-Jizera crystalline complex, a large group of hard, shiny rocks. A major part of this complex, the Krkonoše-Jizera pluton (a large mass of rock formed deep underground), extends into the park and shapes the main mountain ridge from Mrtvý vrch (1,060 meters) to the western foothills of Sněžka (1,603 meters).

In the area where different rock types meet, from Hvězda (959 meters) through Čertova hora (1,210 meters) to Svorová hora (1,411 meters), the main rocks are gray schist and phyllites (layered rocks). The eastern part of the region is mostly made of Krkonoše gneisses and phyllites, while the western part is mainly phyllites from the Ponikel group. The sub-Krkonoše basin, which contains rocks formed during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, also extends into the park.

Mountain areas in Central Europe have clear seasonal changes and are influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, leading to changing weather. The direction of slopes toward sunlight and wind patterns affect small local climates, which influence plant life. In the Giant Mountains, cold air can stay near the ground for weeks during winter and autumn. The average yearly temperature varies: Sněžka averages 0.2°C, while lower areas are warmer (e.g., 3.9°C in Dolní Malá Úpa, 4.7°C in Bedřichov). July is the warmest month, and January is the coldest. Snow on mountain peaks can last up to 180 days.

The line where forests stop and alpine areas begin in Krkonoše National Park ranges from 1,250 to 1,350 meters above sea level. Some high-altitude plants are glacial relicts—species that survived the last ice age. These include the Giant Mountain lousewort, snow saxifrage, cloudberry, Lindberg’s sphagnum, and others.

The Giant Mountains have several vegetation zones:

In the submontane zone, forests with trees like beech, sycamore, rowan, grey alder, and European larch (on the Polish side) originally grew. However, these forests were mostly cut down and replaced with spruce plantations.

The ground layer includes protected plants such as bulbous corydalis, hollow corydalis, buttercup anemone, wood anemone, wild garlic, and golden lily.

In the montane zone, spruce forests (both natural and planted) dominate. These dark forests support plants like male fern, mountain ribwort, and lady fern.

Since the 18th century, treeless mountain meadows have formed, home to rare plants like the Bohemian bellflower, Sudeten yellow violet, arnica, white-flowered hogweed, and various orchids.

The subalpine zone has some of the most valuable habitats in the Giant Mountains. These include immortelle meadows, northern peat bogs, and low-growing heathlands where glacial relict plants still grow. The ground layer includes species like stiff-leaved immortelle, hairy reed grass, and bog cranberry.

The alpine zone, at the highest elevations, has steep rocky slopes and glacial cirques (called Krkonoše botanical gardens) with the richest plant diversity. Rocky slopes support plants like alpine milk-vetch, mountain garlic, and various ferns. In spring-fed areas, plants such as mountain chives, lesser primrose, alpine clematis, and perennial crocus grow. Woody plants struggle to grow in these extreme conditions, but low-growing species like Silesian willow, Carpathian birch, alpine rockrose, Sudeten rowan, and dwarf mountain pine can be found.

Fauna

The many types of animals in the Giant Mountains are connected to the area's wide variety of plant life. The animal groups in this region developed during the last ice age and the following warmer time called the Holocene period.

At lower mountain areas, animals from the Euro-Siberian region are most common. At higher elevations, animals that live in mountains are more common. Some invertebrates in this area are glacial relicts, meaning they survived from the ice age. These include:

• Spiny-footed minnow (Pungitius pungitius)
• Northern plait beetle
• Mountain mayfly (Baetis alpinus)
• Ground beetle (Nebria gyllenhali)
• Dragonflies such as Somatochlora alpestris and Aeshna coerulea

Among vertebrates, important species include:

• Ring ouzel (Turdus torquatus), a bird that lives at high altitudes
• Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica), a bird that lives in areas similar to tundra
• Eurasian dotterel (Charadrius morinellus), a rare bird found in alpine meadows
• Dipper (Cinclus cinclus), a bird that lives near fast-flowing mountain streams
• The most common rodent in the area, the water vole (Arvicola amphibius)

The Giant Mountains are home to a few species that are found only in this region. These include:

• Krkonoše mayfly (Rhithrogena corcontica)
• Sudeten yellow-banded carpet moth (Torula quadriaria sudetica; a unique version of this species)
• Krkonoše spindle snail (Cochlodina dubiosa corcontica; a unique version of this species)

Tourism

The Giant Mountains are the tallest and most visited mountains in the Czech Republic. Popular places to visit include Sněžka, the starting point of the Elbe River, the waterfalls of Pančava, Elbe, and Mumlava, a nature trail through the Černohorské rašeliniště peat bog, the Obří důl valley, the ancient forest of Dvorský les, and the mountain hut Luční bouda. Other tourist attractions include the Štěpánka lookout tower, which is located on the border of the Giant Mountains and the Jizera Mountains.

In 2022, Krkonoše National Park had the highest number of visitors in its history. The park recorded over 12.1 million visits, which is 250,000 more than the previous record year of 2018. This information comes from anonymized data about the movement of mobile phone users and data from automatic counters at the entrances to the park’s rest areas.

Mass tourism also causes problems. Park officials report that visitors often leave trash in the area, which is costly to clean up. Many tourists also break park rules by entering quiet areas outside marked paths. To address this, extra barriers have been added in some parts of the park, such as at the top of Sněžka, to stop visitors from entering areas not allowed for official movement.

2025

In March 2025, Krkonoše National Park started a project to restore the European silver fir (Abies alba) population. This species has decreased to only 0.46% of the forest because of soil acidification, air pollution, climate change, and pests. Historically, silver firs made up about 15% of the region's forests. The restoration project includes collecting cuttings from selected healthy silver firs. Over 1,500 cuttings were taken from 50 healthy trees at higher altitudes. These cuttings will be grown into young trees to create a seed orchard, with the goal of increasing the silver fir population to about 1.5% in the near future. The first young trees are expected to be planted back into the wild in three years. However, the project's success will take many years because forest ecosystems grow slowly over time.