Białowieża

With royal protection going back to the 15th century, when the grand dukes of Lithuania and kings of Poland kept it as a hunting preserve, Białowieża is the largest surviving fragment of the primeval forest that once covered the whole European plain. The first attempt at formal protection dates from 1921; the present national park was declared in 1932. It was the first natural site in Europe placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, in 1979. After the First World War the European bison died out here in the wild — the last animal was shot by a poacher in 1919 — but a captive breeding programme begun in 1929 with animals from European zoos allowed it to be reintroduced, and today Białowieża holds the largest population of the species in the world, with over 800 animals across the whole Polish-Belarusian forest.