Valdaysky

Valdaysky National Park was established in 1990 in Novgorod oblast, halfway between Moscow and St Petersburg, and protects some 1,585 km² of the Valdai Hills, a morainic upland left by the last ice sheet.

The landscape is the classic post-glacial one of the Russian plain: gentle hills of morainic material, eskers, hollows occupied by clear-water lakes and a dense network of streams and mires. Lakes Valdayskoye and Seliger are the largest and best known, and their combination of water, coniferous and broadleaved forest has made the district a traditional destination for summer holidays and boating.

The upland also has a decisive hydrographic role for eastern Europe: on its heights rise the Volga, which empties into the Caspian, the Dnieper, which reaches the Black Sea, and the Western Dvina, which drains into the Baltic, so that it is the divide between three great basins. On one of the islands of Lake Valdayskoye stands the Iversky Monastery, founded in 1653, one of the most recognisable monastic complexes in north-western Russia. The fauna is that of temperate and boreal forest, with elk, wild boar, beaver, brown bear, lynx and an abundant waterbird fauna.