Żerkowsko-Czeszewski Park Krajobrazowy: A Protected Landscape in Greater Poland Voivodeship

The landscape park was created in 1994 under a joint regulation (Nr 1/94) of the voivodes of Kalisz and Poznań, reflecting the desire to safeguard both the geological and ecological character of the middle Warta valley and its surrounding moraine uplands. The designation followed decades of growing awareness that the area's floodplain forests, oxbows, and hilly terrain formed an unusually rich and interconnected natural system under threat from intensifying forestry, drainage, and agricultural change.

Within the park, stricter protection had already been established earlier through nature reserves. The Czeszewski Las reserve protects one of the most natural stretches of deciduous forest in the region, the Dwunastak reserve preserves old oak-hornbeam woodland, and the Dębno nad Wartą reserve was created to safeguard rare mollusk assemblages as well as riverine habitats. The protected area was later recognized at the European level, overlapping with Natura 2000 sites for both birds (Dolina Środkowej Warty) and habitats (Lasy Żerkowsko-Czeszewskie).

Human history of the landscape long predates its formal protection. The Gothic church of Dębno, dating to the fifteenth century, and the late 18th-century palace at Śmiełów, where Adam Mickiewicz stayed in 1831 and which today houses a museum dedicated to the poet, both became integral parts of the park. The 19th-century neoclassical palace and park at Miłosław, former seat of the Miłłyński family, anchors the cultural heritage of the protected area and provides a counterpoint to the surrounding natural landscape.

The landscape of Żerkowsko-Czeszewski Park is shaped by the contrast between a broad, flat glacial river valley and a sharply incised moraine highland. The Warta flows through the park in a wide pradolina, a flat-bottomed ice-age spillway edged with steep slopes that rise abruptly from the floodplain. Belted along the river are sweeping meadows and a chain of old oxbow lakes marking former channels of the Warta and Lutynia, many of them still holding water and surrounded by marshy vegetation.

Above the valley floor, the southern and central parts of the park rise into the rolling relief that has earned the area its local epithet, Szwajcaria Żerkowska. The Wał Żerkowski, an elongated moraine ridge, and two prominent hills, Łysa Góra reaching 161 meters and Góra Żerkowska reaching 155 meters, dominate the skyline. Their slopes are cut by small valleys and forested ravines, producing the unusual impression of a miniature hilly landscape embedded in the Polish lowlands.

Viewpoints at Brzostków and Wolica Kozia allow visitors to appreciate this juxtaposition of forested hillsides, agricultural lowlands, and winding river corridors. From the Wolica Kozia lookout, the floodplain forests and the Dębno nad Wartą reserve can be surveyed from above, offering a clear overview of how glacial history, river dynamics, and forest continuity have together produced a varied and visually distinctive protected terrain.

Ecologically, the park belongs to a network of central European lowland ecosystems where natural processes still shape large tracts of floodplain and forest. The southern forest blocks, especially around the Czeszewski Las and Dwunastak reserves, contain mixed and broadleaf deciduous communities dominated by oak, hornbeam, lime, ash, and elm, with transitions into ash-elm floodplain forest closer to the Warta. The presence of large quantities of standing and fallen deadwood gives these forests a near-primeval character uncommon in modern Polish lowlands.

Open habitats form a significant share of the mosaic. Floodplain meadows along the Warta include remnants of the vegetation types that once dominated central European river valleys, such as tufted hair-grass meadows and selernicowe meadows, sustaining rare plants like narrow-leaved gentian, marsh pea, marsh violet, and several orchid species. Old oxbows provide refuge for white water lilies and other aquatic plants that have become scarce elsewhere in the region. The Orzechowo ecological use site protects valuable meadow habitats still harboring atypical plant species, including a unique Wielkopolska station of a small sedge.

The plant diversity recorded in the park exceeds 800 species, encompassing forest, meadow, wetland, and aquatic flora. This richness reflects the convergence of valley and upland habitats within a single protected area, supporting both thermophilous woodland plants on the slopes and moisture-dependent species in the wet depressions and old river channels below.

Wildlife is one of the defining attractions of Żerkowsko-Czeszewski Park. The black stork serves as the symbolic species of the protected area, having nested here regularly since its first recorded breeding attempt in 1965. Around 150 breeding bird species have been documented, and more than 200 species in total have been recorded across seasons. The diversity of woodland structure, with abundant deadwood, creates ideal conditions for woodpeckers, and the park is particularly notable for the high density of middle spotted woodpecker breeding pairs.

The mosaic of river, oxbows, and forest also supports a rich mammal community. The European beaver and the European otter are present along the Warta and its still-water habitats, while occasional moose observations highlight the value of the larger continuous forest blocks. At least nine bat species use the park's forests, caves, and old buildings, including the western barbastelle. Amphibians are well represented, with twelve recorded species including the great crested newt and the fire-bellied toad, supported by numerous breeding sites across the wetlands and oxbows.

Invertebrate diversity is exceptional. The park's old deciduous forests shelter threatened saproxylic beetles such as the stag beetle, oak longhorn beetle, and hermit beetle, alongside other deadwood-dependent species. The Dębno nad Wartą reserve was explicitly established to protect rare mollusks, including narrow-mouthed whorl snails and several Clausiliidae species that have some of their only Wielkopolska stations in this area. Fish fauna in the Warta and connected waters includes at least twenty species, including protected spined loach associated with oxbow habitats.

Żerkowsko-Czeszewski Park was created to safeguard a combination of features that is rare in the Polish lowlands: near-natural floodplain forests, a highly varied glacial relief, and intact river dynamics expressed in oxbow lakes and meander scars. The protection regime rests on several layers: the landscape park as the umbrella designation, three nature reserves providing strictly protected core areas, and Natura 2000 sites adding European-level recognition of the park's bird and habitat values.

Conservation significance is concentrated in the southern forest complexes, where the Czeszewski Las and Dwunastak reserves protect deciduous forests of high naturalness, rich in deadwood and old trees. These reserves maintain habitat conditions for a guild of specialist species, from rare beetles and mollusks to middle spotted woodpeckers, that depend on the continuity of old-growth processes. The river corridor is no less important: the Warta and its floodplain sustain otter, beaver, black stork, and a network of protected oxbow-lake habitats increasingly threatened in surrounding regions.

The park also has an important role in preserving semi-natural meadow and pasture habitats that depend on traditional, low-intensity agriculture, a key element in sustaining both rare plant species and the cultural character of the Szwajcaria Żerkowska uplands. By combining strict reserves with broader landscape-scale management, the protected area functions as a regional stronghold for lowland biodiversity and as a reference site for natural floodplain and deciduous forest conservation in Wielkopolska.

The cultural fabric of the park is tightly woven into its natural setting. The most famous cultural site is the late 18th-century palace at Śmiełów, where Adam Mickiewicz spent part of the summer of 1831, and which now houses a museum dedicated to the poet. The estate remains a focal point of literary tourism and is integrated into the park's trail network, including the so-called Mickiewicz walking trail.

Other monuments reflect centuries of settlement along the Warta. The Gothic church of Dębno, dating from the fifteenth century, is among the most valuable historic buildings in the park, while the neoclassical palace of the Miłłyński family in Miłosław and its surrounding landscape park form an extensive aristocratic ensemble. The cultural landscape also includes historic pilgrimage paths, with the local section of the St. James Way running along the park's northeastern edge and through the Warta valley.

Beyond individual monuments, the park preserves a broader rural and estate heritage visible in village layouts, traditional farmsteads, small chapels, and the working agricultural mosaic of meadow, field, and woodland that still defines the southern uplands. Together, these elements provide a layered cultural context in which Mickiewicz, the aristocratic families of Miłosław, medieval parish communities, and contemporary rural life all share the same protected terrain.

Key highlights of Żerkowsko-Czeszewski Park include the dramatic moraine hills of the Szwajcaria Żerkowska, especially Łysa Góra and Góra Żerkowska, and the sweeping Warta floodplain with its well-preserved oxbow lakes. The near-primeval riparian and oak-hornbeam forests of the Czeszewski Las and Dwunastak reserves stand among the most natural lowland deciduous woodlands in Wielkopolska and are core to the park's conservation identity.

Wildlife highlights include thriving populations of black stork and middle spotted woodpecker, regular beaver and otter activity along the Warta, and a notable concentration of rare saproxylic beetles and mollusks in the protected reserves. Cultural highlights include the Mickiewicz palace and museum at Śmiełów, the Gothic church at Dębno, the neoclassical palace and grounds at Miłosław, and the region's historic pilgrimage routes, which together frame the natural landscape in a long regional heritage.

Spring and early summer are particularly rewarding periods for visiting the park, when floodplain meadows reach peak flowering and oak-hornbeam canopy forests are fully leafed, supporting active birdlife including black stork and a chorus of warblers. Late spring also offers the best chances to hear amphibians breeding in the oxbow lakes and to observe woodland flowers such as orchids in the greener forest sections.

Summer provides the warmest conditions for exploring the network of cycling and walking routes, including the long eight-shaped bike loop and the Mickiewicz walking trail linking Śmiełów, Żerków, and Dębno, while viewpoints such as those at Brzostków and Wolica Kozia offer broad vistas of the moraine relief. Autumn brings rich forest colors and a strong seasonal display in the deciduous stands, making it a favored period for those interested in woodland scenery, mushroom hunting in line with local regulations, and quieter, cooler conditions for hiking the more hilly southern parts of the park.