Mercantour National Park
| Mercantour National Park | |||
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| Location: | Alpes-de-Haute-Provence , Alpes-Maritimes , France | ||
| Next city: | Nice | ||
| Surface: | 215,000 ha | ||
| Founding: | 18th August 1979 | ||
| Address: |
National Park website 23 rue d'Italie BP 1316 F − 06000 Nice |
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The Mercantour National Park ( French Parc national du Mercantour ) is located in the French Maritime Alps and extends over the departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur . It covers large parts of the Vallée de l ' Ubaye , Vallée de la Tinée , Vallée du Var , Vallée de la Vésubie and Vallée de la Roya . The national park is named after the mountain range of the same name.
The highest point is the Cime du Gélas ( 3,143 m ), another six peaks exceed 3,000 meters, including Mont Clapier ( 3,045 m ), the southernmost three-thousand-meter peak in the Alps.
History of origin
The National Park was established in 1979 as a "two-zone Park": a specially protected and uninhabited core zone of 68,500 ha , the outer zone stretches of 146,500 ha.
The origins of the national park go back to the Italian royal hunting ground Valdieri-Entraque, to which the northernmost part of the park belonged until 1947. After that, the protected area was gradually expanded by France and declared a national park in 1979. There is a close cooperation with the Italian Parco Naturale delle Alpi Marittime , which has also been contractually fixed since 1987. Both park administrations are working together to create a “European national park”.
Prehistoric sites
In the east of the national park is the Mont Bégo ( 2872 m ), which was venerated as a holy mountain by the local shepherds. Here you will find the two valleys, Vallée des Merveilles ("Valley of the Miracles") and Vallée de Fontanalbe ("Valley of the White Spring"), which are particularly famous for their more than 35,000 rock carvings from the Bronze Age . The engravings can be found at an altitude between 2100 and 2600 meters and were probably made by shepherds in the area around 1800–1500 BC. Chr. Incised. The motifs include animals, people, geometric figures, tools and weapons. In 1989 the rock carvings were declared natural monuments.
Flora and fauna
The national park has a species-rich flora (over 2000 plant species, 40 of which are endemic ). The best known of the endemic plants is the florulenta Saxifraga , a rare Steinbrechart that after about 30 years, blooms only once and then dies.
Chamois , Alpine ibex , golden eagle , bearded vulture , marmot , European mouflon , capercaillie and some Italian wolves live in the national park . The reintroduction of the ibex began back in 1921, when around 20 animals were brought from the area of what is now the Gran Paradiso National Park to the Mercantour massif.
- Wolves
The immigration of wolves from Italy began in 1992. Around 2015 their number is estimated at around 50. In 2012, out of around 100,000 sheep, around 6,000 were killed by wolves.
Nature and environmental protection
In 1993 the Mercantour National Park was awarded the European Diploma for Protected Areas by the Council of Europe .
tourism
Other striking places are Mont Mounier ( 2817 m ) and Lac d'Allos , which is known as the largest natural mountain lake at this altitude ( 2220 m ).
- Long-distance and long-distance hiking trails
There are over 600 kilometers of marked hiking trails in the national park. The long-distance hiking trails GR 5 , Via Alpina , GR 52 and GR 52A run through the Mercantour.
photos
Saxifraga florulenta
See also
literature
- Reinhard Scholl: French Maritime Alps. Mercantour - Merveilles. Rother, Munich 2011, ISBN 3-7633-4146-3 .
- Sabine Bade, Wolfram Mikuteit: Grande Randonnée 52A. Le Sentier panoramique du Mercantour. Fernwege.de, Roxheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-937304-78-6 .
- Anja Ueberschär: The controversial return of the wolf to the French sea Alps. Opportunities to ensure acceptance from the shepherd's point of view in the Mercantour National Park. Technical University, Faculty of Forestry, Munich 2000 (diploma thesis)
- Hubertus Porada: On the tectonics and metamorphosis of the Pennine zone between the Dora Maira and Mercantour massifs. In: Yearbook of Geology and Paleontology. Treatises Vol. 124, Göttingen 1964 (dissertation)
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Hiking in the Mercantour
- World Database on Protected Areas - Mercantour National Park (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eckhard Fuhr: Return of the wolves, How a homecomer changes our lives , Goldmann-Verlag, Munich 2016, p. 94, ISBN 978-3-442-15898-0