Bükk

Bükk National Park was established in 1977 in northern Hungary, in the mountains of the same name, and protects some 431 km². It was the third Hungarian national park and the first in the mountains.

Its core is a raised limestone plateau, the most extensive in the country, with a highly developed karst: dolines, shafts, blind valleys and more than a thousand catalogued cavities. The name Bükk means beech, and indeed beech woods cover much of the massif, accompanied by oak woods at lower altitudes and karst grasslands on the high ground, with a flora rich in Carpathian and sub-Mediterranean elements.

Its caves are of first-order archaeological value: the Istállós-kő cave and others in the massif have yielded some of the most important Palaeolithic sites in central Europe, with stone tools and remains of glacial fauna. At the surface, the Szalajka valley, with its stepped waterfall over tufa formations, is the most visited spot. The park also preserves traces of traditional charcoal production and of historic iron metallurgy, activities that shaped the forest for centuries.