Słowiński

Słowiński National Park was declared in 1967 and stretches along the Baltic coast of Pomeranian Voivodeship, between the towns of Łeba and Rowy. Its best-known feature is the shifting dunes of the Łeba spit, an active dune field that the wind moves several metres a year and that has buried entire forests, whose dead trunks reappear decades later as the sand travels on. It is one of the few mobile dune systems left in Europe and the main reason for the park's protection.

The park is not confined to the dune belt, however. It also takes in the Gardno-Łeba plain, stretches of terminal moraine from the last glaciation and a series of coastal lagoons cut off from the sea by the sand spits, among them Lake Łebsko, one of the largest in Poland. That mosaic of fresh water, marsh, peat bog, pine forest and bare sand generates a very high diversity of environments in a small space.

Its ornithological value is notable: more than 250 bird species have been recorded, some in very large concentrations, and the lagoons serve as a resting and feeding area on the Baltic migration route. In 1977 UNESCO included the area in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, one of the first Polish designations along with Białowieża, Lake Łuknajno and Babia Góra. It has also been a Ramsar site since 1995. The park's name recalls the Slovincians, the West Slavic community that inhabited these coasts and whose culture is documented by an open-air museum within the park.