Kabaty Woods: The Largest Forest Inside Warsaw

At the southern end of metro line M1, the city simply stops and a forest begins. Kabaty Woods covers nearly 925 hectares - a rectangle of pine and oak roughly 4-5 kilometres long and 2.5-3 kilometres wide. According to Warsaw's municipal forests service, it is the largest forest complex within the capital and at the same time the largest nature reserve in the Mazovia region.

From noble hunting ground to city forest

In the 17th and 18th centuries the woods belonged to the Sobieski family, then the Potockis and Branickis, supplying timber and firewood to nearby Wilanow and serving as a hunting ground; the artificial ponds in the central part survive from an old game enclosure. In 1938 the city of Warsaw bought the forest under mayor Stefan Starzynski, securing it as public woodland. The reserve was formally established on 11 August 1980.

Ciphers and a memorial

The woods carry two unusual chapters of history. In the 1930s, the Polish Cipher Bureau worked in facilities by the forest where mathematicians Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski broke the German Enigma cipher - a memorial stone marks the site. And a memorial in the forest honours the victims of the 1987 crash of LOT flight 5055, an Il-62 that came down by the woods with the loss of 183 lives.

Visiting

Take metro line M1 to Kabaty, the southern terminus, and the forest edge is a few minutes on foot. Marked walking, cycling and running loops cross the reserve; the terrain is flat apart from a scenic stretch of the Warsaw Escarpment in the east. Combine a visit with nearby Wilanow Palace, a short bus ride away.