Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe

This site used to be shared by three countries but recently UNESCO extended it to a total of 18 countries! As if it wasn't already hard enough to get postcards of the previous three...

Kalkalpen National Park

This postcard was sent by Marco

Kalkalpen National Park (in English literally Limestone Alps National Park) is a national park within the Northern Limestone Alps mountain range, located in the state of Upper Austria, Austria. The park was established in 1997. The ancient beech forests within the national park were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, because of their undisturbed nature and testimony to the ecological history of Europe since the Last Glacial Period. - in : wikipedia

Sonian Forest

This postcard was sent by Javier

The Sonian Forest or Sonian Wood (Dutch: Zoniënwoud, French: Forêt de Soignes) is a 4,421-hectare (10,920-acre) forest at the southeast edge of Brussels, Belgium.

Today the forest consists mainly of European beeches and oaks. Several trees are more than 200 years old, dating from the Austrian period. - in: wikipedia

Velebit National Park

This postcard was sent by Antonella

The Northern Velebit National Park (Croatian: Nacionalni park Sjeverni Velebit) is a national park in Croatia that covers 109 km² of the northern section of the Velebit mountains, the largest mountain range in Croatia. Because of the abundant variety of this part of the Velebit range, the area was upgraded from a nature reserve in 1999, and opened as a national park in September the same year. - in: wikipedia

Paklenica National Park

This postcard was sent by Steffi

The Paklenica karst river canyon is a national park in Croatia. It is near Starigrad, northern Dalmatia, on the southern slopes of Velebit mountain, not far from Zadar. It contains two canyons, Mala (Small) and Velika (Big) Paklenica. Today there is no water flowing through Mala Paklenica.

The wealth of flora is reflected in the list of 1,000 plant species and subspecies recorded to date, 79 of them endemic. The great diversity, the presence of relict, endemic, rare, statutorily protected species make the Park a very valuable floristic area, not just in Croatia, but in Europe and the world as well.

The forest phenomenon is one of the main reasons why the South Velebit area was proclaimed a national park. Areas of oak and oriental hornbeam forests, beech forest, black pine forests, and fern forest, can all be found in the park. In 2017, the beech forests within the national park were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe because of their testimony to the ecological history of forest dynamics within Europe since the last Ice Age. - in: wikipedia

Jasmund National Park

This postcard was sent by Gerald

The Jasmund National Park (German: Nationalpark Jasmund) is a nature reserve on the Jasmund peninsula, in the northeast of Rügen island in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is famous for containing the largest chalk cliffs in Germany, the Königsstuhl (German = "king's chair").

Jasmund National Park

This postcard was sent by Shoni

These cliffs are up to 161 m (528 ft) above the Baltic Sea. The beech forests behind the cliffs are also part of the national park.

Wissower Klinken in Jasmund National Park

This postcard was sent by Michèle

The chalk cliffs face constant erosion. With every storm, parts of the cliffs fall, including rocks and fossils of sponges, oysters and sea urchins.

The most majestic part of the cliffs is the Königsstuhl (English: king's chair) which stands at 118 m (387 ft). One of the most scenic and best known of the chalk outcrops, the Wissower Klinken, collapsed into the Baltic Sea on February 24, 2005, in a landslide caused by spring-thaw weather conditions. - in: wikipedia

Grumsin Forest

This postcard was sent by Carola

Buchenwald Grumsin World Heritage Natural Site - the largest nature development area of the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve. What is special about the 670-hectare nature reserve between the A 11 motorway Berlin-Prenzlau and the city of Angermünde is not only that there are old beech trees, but also a typical landscape shaped by glaciers dating back to the last glacial period (about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago) with deep valleys and rugged heights, resembling mountains with numerous lakes and marshlands. - in: http://www.brandenburg-tourism.com/detail/id/17724/theme/a-z.html

Parco Nazionale delle Casentinesi

This postcard was sent by Sini

The Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona, Campigna is a national park in Italy. Created in 1993, it covers an area of about 368 square kilometres (142 sq mi), on the two sides of the Apennine watershed between Romagna and Tuscany, and is divided between the provinces of Forlì Cesena, Arezzo and Florence.

A large part of the park is woodland. In the park are areas the mountain vegetation, all types of woodland of the lower sub-mountain belt vegetation. In the forest dominated by hornbeams, turkey oaks and sessile oaks, chestnut woods (especially in the Camaldoli area and at Castagno d’Andrea on the Florentine side). In rocky places there are some of remaining rare cork oaks . - in: wikipedia

Połonina Wetlińska, Bieszczady Mountains

This postcard was sent by Sebastian

Bieszczady National Park (Polish: Bieszczadzki Park Narodowy) is the third-largest national park in Poland, located in Subcarpathian Voivodeship in the extreme southeast corner of the country. In 2021, the national park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The park was created in 1973. At the time it covered only 59.55 square kilometres (22.99 sq mi), but over the years it was enlarged four times. - in: wikipedia

Carpathians in Slovakia

This postcard was sent by Javier

The Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians include ten separate massifs located along the 185 km (115 mi) long axis from the Rakhiv mountains and Chornohora ridge in Ukraine over the Poloniny Ridge (Slovakia) to the Vihorlat Mountains in Slovakia. - in: wikipedia

Spain's Beech Forests

This postcard was sent by Javier

Beech forest of Castilla – La Mancha: the Tejera Negra beech forest is 150 kilometres from Madrid, and you will need to reserve a parking space in advance. There are two circular walking routes and a visitors’ centre.Beech forest of the Community of Madrid: the Montejo beech forest, about 100 kilometres from Madrid, includes part of the Sierra del Rincón Biosphere Reserve. Booking is essential, and you can do it up to three months in advance.Beech forests of Navarre: the Lizardoia beech forest is part of the popular Irati Forest, and close to its visitors’ centre (Casa de Irati, in Ochagavía), which organises guided tours and offers information on mountain bike routes. The Aztaparreta beech forest is part of the Roncal Valley and very close to the Larra-Belagua ski resort, in the heart of the Pyrenees.Beech forests of Castilla y León: the beech forests of Cuesta Fría and Canal de Asotín are in León’s share of the Picos de Europa National Park. The park hiking route “Through the villages of Sajambre” covers the beech forest area and is an easy walk. It is about 125 kilometres from the cities of Oviedo and León. - in: https://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/naturaleza/espacios-naturales/hayedos-patrimonio-mundial-espana.html#

Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine

This postcard was sent by Balyna

The Carpathian Mountains are a mountain range system forming an arc roughly 1,500 km (932 mi) long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe.

Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine 

This postcard was sent by Marco

They provide the habitat for the largest European populations of brown bears, wolves, chamois and lynxes. in: wikipedia

I'm still missing postcards from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia and Switzerland