Green Velo

One of the most recognisable tourist destinations in the Podlaskie voivodeship, very popular among bird lovers, nature observers and people who like peaceful interactions with nature. It is known because of the Białowieża National Park - its heart and the biggest attraction.

The park is often called The Kingdom of the European Bison, because of the presence of the biggest European mammal. The Rezerwat Protective District is the most important place to visit here - an area devoid of any human activity.

The Nature and Forest Museum presents the peculiarities of the Park. It is also worth going around the surrounding Palace Park, which serves as a reminder of the tsars who used to visit Białowieża. Tsar Alexander III visited the construction site of the nearby Orthodox Church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker on the 20th of August 1894. The ceramic iconostasis in the church, the only one of its kind in Poland, was made of Chinese porcelain imported from Petersburg. The construction was completed before Tsar Nicholas II visited Białowieża in 1897. At the time, he arrived to the town of Białowieża on the very first train from Hajnówka. After his first visit, he returned often enough to warrant the construction of the railway station complex; the Białowieża Towarowa (Białowieża Cargo Station) has survived in good shape, and after conservation works, it houses a restaurant serving both Polish and Russian cuisine, with decorations that reflect back to the times of the tsars. Białowieża Towarowa is also the first stop for the Białowieża Trolleys - a unique way to see the forest. The unique qualities of the nature in the forest can be observed from one of the four Nordic walking trails: Wysokie Bagno (3.6 kilometres), Dziedzinka (8.8 kilometres), Exploring Białowieża (8.9 kilometres) and Journey in Białowieża (10.6 kilometres). They all begin on the eastern outskirts of the town, near the forest car park on ul. Waszkiewicza.

Many attractive biking trails surround and cross the town of Białowieża, with one of the most important, the Białowieża Transborder Trail, crossing the National and Landscape Parks and connecting Belarus with Poland. The trail runs through a network of roads, with wooden road signs stylised after the architecture of the region. Other trails in Białowieża, such as ”The Trail of The Royal Oaks and Great Lithuanian Princes”, presenting centuries-old oaks, and the ”Ribs of the Bison” trail, the first natural forest trail, are also worth seeing, because by taking a walk along them, one may see the local curiosities and picturesque parts of the forest.