Ugra National Park
The Ugra is a national park of Russia in the Kaluga Region among the Zhizdra, Vassa, Ugra and Oka rivers. The park's territory is 986 km2. The picturesque valleys attract the attention of a huge number of tourists with their picturesque landscapes. The history of Russian statehood, which is marked by the "Great Stand", is closely connected with the Ugra River. Zhizdra includes dense forests from the "Zasechnaya line", which protected the Moscow state from the raids of the steppe people. Large centers of the spiritual life of the inhabitants of Russia were founded there – the famous monasteries called Kazan Ambrosievsky and Optina Pustyn.
In order to preserve the natural complex and monuments of historical and cultural heritage, a national park called "Ugra" was organized here in 1997. The main tasks of this park also include various scientific research, the development of eco-education, eco-tourism, and the protection of rare species of animals and plants.
The natural landscapes of the park called Ugra are quite diverse. Here you can find combinations of moraine deposits, which are formed with the help of glaciers of various glaciation ages, various swamps, as well as sand hills in the lower parts of the relief. The main waterways of this park are the Zhizdra and Ugra rivers, which have a huge number of different tributaries.
The main wealth of the Ugra Park is forests, which occupy approximately 63 percent of the entire park territory. In the north, near the Ugra River, there are mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests, where there are patches of pure pine forests and a complex forest. The Zhizdrinsky territory is distinguished only by broad-leaved forests, where you can find unique old-growth ash oak forests, which are about 200 years old. In total, approximately a thousand species of vascular plants grow on the territory of this park, of which 165 are regionally rare, and 5 are in the Red Book of Russia.
There are about three hundred species of vertebrates in the Ugra Park, of which about 48 are mammals. The largest number of species of rodents and martens are found here: muskrat, beaver, forest marten, otter, black polecat and American mink. Among the predators in the park you can find a brown bear and a fox. The Russian muskrat, which is a Russian endemic listed in the International Red Book, lives in the floodplain lakes of the Zhizdra River. The hollows of ancient trees are home to bats such as the mustachioed moth, the ushan, the giant vespers and the red-haired vespers. And the giant party is listed in the Red Book of Russia.
The territory of the Ugra National Park has such a mix of cultural, historical and natural resources that provide it with a special place both in the region and in Central Russia. There are about two hundred tourist sites within the boundaries of this park. The rivers Ugra and Zhizdra flow through meadows and forests. Here you can admire the beauty of the valleys, which attract tourists with their picturesque landscapes.
While traveling in the Ugra Park, tourists can visit the natural attractions of the Kaluga region, as well as get acquainted with historical monuments. Among these historical monuments are the famous monastery called the Svyato-Vvedenskaya Optina of Deserts, the Chertovo Hillfort, the Shamordinsky Monastery, the Obolensky estate, and the ancient Slavic fortress settlements near the Ugra River.
