Danube Delta

Made a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1990, after the fall of the Ceaușescu regime — which had pushed drainage and reed monoculture across part of the delta through the 1980s — it is the largest wetland in Europe still in good ecological condition. Built from the sediment the Danube has laid down at its mouth on the Black Sea over millennia, it holds Europe's largest breeding colony of Dalmatian pelican and over 300 bird species, which makes it a critical migratory staging post between Africa and northern Europe.