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The Belovezhskaya Pushcha headquarters at Kamieniuki, Belarus include laboratory facilities, a zoo where wisent (reintroduced into the park in 1929), konik (a semi-wild horse), wild boar, elk, and other indigenous animals may be viewed in their natural habitat, as well as a small interpretive museum, restaurant, snack bar and hotel facilities which were built during the Soviet era and are currently in a state of disrepair. Due to the lack of facilities and internal tourist regulations (special registration in Brest, Belarus is needed in the Visa office of the Ministry of the Interior Affairs, or in the Intourist hotel) few foreign tourists visit the Belarusian Pushcha annually.
On the Polish side, in the Bialowieza National Park, one finds the Bialowieska Glade, originally built for the tsars of Russia -- the last private owners of the Forest (from 1888 to 1917) when the whole forest was within the Russian Empire. The Glade is equipped with a hotel, restaurant and parking areas. Guided tours into the strictly controlled areas of the park can be arranged by horse drawn carriage. Approximately 100,000 tourists visit the Polish part of the Forest annually.
Once Belarus was totally covered by tracs of forests like the Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The people could travel here only along rivers till the 14th century. As a matter of fact, roads and bridges appeared much later.
Limited hunting rights were granted throughout Pushcha forest in the 14th Century; the first recorded piece of legislation on the protection of the forest dates to 1538. The forest was declared a hunting reserve in 1541 for the protection of European bison (wisent). In 1557, the forest charter was issued, under which a special board to examine the rights of forest usage was established. The last private owners of the Pushcha were the Russian Tsars (1888 to 1917), after which the forest was nationalised and put under the jurisdiction of the state.
Today, the Pushcha is protected under: Decision No. 657 of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, 9 October 1944; Order No. 2252-P of the USSR Council of Ministers, 9 August 1957; and Decree No.352 of the Byelorussian SSR Council of Ministers, 16 September 1991. Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992 and internationally recognised as a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme in 1993.
Quite a new attraction is a unique museum of the New Year and the residence of Father Frost (Ded Moroz, literally: Grandfather Frost; Santa Claus of East Slavs). Thousands of tourists have seen the museum by January 1, 2004.
History of Establisment
External links