Barycz Valley Landscape Park

Barycz Valley Landscape Park lies on the border of the Lower Silesian and Greater Poland (Wielkopolskie) Voivodeships, between Żmigród and Przygodzice, along the Barycz river. It's one of the largest landscape parks in Poland, a place where the landscape has been shaped entirely by water: ponds, wet meadows and forests.

How big is the park

The park covers an area of 87,040 hectares, of which 70,040 hectares lie in the Lower Silesian part and 17,000 hectares in the Greater Poland part. The park was established on 3 June 1996. It has no buffer zone, that is, no protective zone around its boundaries.

Three types of habitat

The park's area covers three types of habitat: fish ponds, wet meadows and forests. This combination makes the Barycz Valley a large-scale refuge for water and wetland birds.

Milicz Ponds

The park contains one of the largest complexes of fish ponds in Europe, known as the Milicz Ponds. It comprises almost 300 ponds in the Milicz and Żmigród area. The complex is covered by the Ramsar Convention on the protection of wetland environments.

European protection

The park has been designated a European Important Bird Area (IBA), as well as the "Dolina Baryczy" special protection area for birds and the "Ostoja nad Baryczą" special area of conservation for habitats, both part of the European Natura 2000 network.

Practical information

• The park stretches between Żmigród and Przygodzice, along the Barycz river, in Milicz County and neighbouring counties
• The main natural attraction is the Milicz Ponds in the Milicz and Żmigród area
• Nearby it's worth seeing the Wzgórze Joanny nature reserve and the park in Postolin, and on a rainy day the Bauble Museum