| Bieszczady Mountains | |
|---|---|
| Bieszczady, Beščady, Бещади, Besszádok | |
 | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Pikui |
| Elevation | 1,405 m (4,610 ft) |
| Geography | |
 Location of Bieszczady Mountains, marked in red color and labeled as C1 | |
| Countries | |
| Regions/Voivodeships | |
| Range coordinates | 49°16′59″N22°28′59″E / 49.283°N 22.483°E /49.283; 22.483 |
| Parent range | Eastern Beskids |
| Borders on | |
Bieszczady Mountains[bʲɛˈʂt͡ʂadɨ] (Polish:Bieszczady;Slovak:Beščady;Ukrainian:Бещади,romanized: Beshchady;Hungarian:Besszádok) is a mountain range that runs from the extreme south-east ofPoland and north-east ofSlovakia through to westernUkraine. It forms the western part of theEastern Beskids (Polish:Beskidy Wschodnie; Ukrainian:Східні Бескиди,romanized: Skhidni Beskydy), and is more generally part of theOuter Eastern Carpathians. The mountain range is situated between theŁupków Pass (640 m) and theVyshkovskyi Pass (933 m). The highest peak of Bieszczady is MtPikui (1405 m) in Ukraine. The highest peak of the Polish part isTarnica (1346 m).[citation needed]
Upper parties of Bieszczady are covered withmontane meadows calledpolonyna (Ukrainian:полонина; Polish:połonina; Slovak:polonina).
The termBieszczady has been introduced into English from Polish. In Poland, the term usually refers (in the narrower sense) to the Polish part of the Bieszczady region, while in the wider sense it can also refer to the entire region. In Slovakia, the Bieszczady region is known asBeščady, while the Slovak part of the region is calledBukovec Mountains (Slovak:Bukovské vrchy). In Ukraine, the Bieszczady region is known as Beshchady (Ukrainian:Бещади), while various parts of the region often have two or more name variants (unstable terminology), usually containing the wordBeščady in combination with some other terms. Historically, the termsBieszczady/Beščady/Beshchady have been used for hundreds of years to describe the mountains separating the oldKingdom of Hungary fromPoland. A Latin language source of 1269 refers to them as "Beschad Alpes Poloniae" (translated as:Bieszczady Mountains of Poland).[1]
The Polishfolk etymology holds the term Bieszczady to have stemmed from the termsBies andCzad (possibly fromChort) along with the Polish pluraly stem givingBies + czady + y. Some folk stories connect the origin of the mountains to the demonic activity of theBiesy andCzady, while other folk stories tell of the mountains being populated with hordes ofBiesy andCzady, hence the name.[2] Another less probable possibility is the term being related toMiddle Low Germanbeshêt,beskēt, meaningwatershed.[3]
Since there exist many variants of divisions of the mountain ranges and names for theEastern Beskids (andUkrainian Carpathians in general), several divisions are given in the following:
Division 1:
Division 2:
Division 3:In an old Ukrainian division, what is defined here as the Bieszczady in a wider sense corresponds to the western part of theMid-Carpathian Depression and to the westernmost part of the Polonynian Beskids.[citation needed]
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Settled in prehistoric times, the south-eastern Poland region that is now Bieszczady was overrun in pre-Roman times by various tribes, including theCelts,Goths andVandals (Przeworsk culture andPuchov culture). After the fall of the Roman Empire, of which most of south-eastern Poland was part (all parts below theSan),[citation needed]Hungarians andWest Slavs invaded the area.
The region subsequently became part of theGreat Moravian state. Upon the invasion of theHungarian tribes into the heart of the Great Moravian Empire around 899, theLendians of the area declared their allegiance to the Hungarians. The region then became a site of contention between Poland,Kievan Rus and Hungary starting in at least the 9th century. This area was mentioned for the first time in 981, whenVolodymyr the Great ofKievan Rus took the area over on the way into Poland. In 1018 it returned to Poland, 1031 back to Rus, in 1340Casimir III of Poland recovered it.
Bieszczady was one of the strategically important areas of the Carpathian mountains bitterly contested in battles on theEastern Front of World War I during the winter of 1914/1915.[4]
Up until 1947, about 75% of the population of the Polish part of the Bieszczadzkie Mountains wasBoyko. The killing of the Polish GeneralKarol Świerczewski inJabłonki by theUkrainian Insurgent Army in 1947 was the direct cause of the replacement of the Boykos, the so-calledOperation Vistula. The area was mostly uninhabited afterward. New Poles settled in the Bieszczady, joining the Poles living in the Bieszczady area before 1947, but the area became much less populated than before 1947. In 2002, then presidentAleksander Kwaśniewski expressed regret for this operation.
In 1991, theUNESCOEast Carpathian Biosphere Reserve was created that encapsulates a large part of the area and continues into Slovakia and Ukraine. It comprises theBieszczady National Park (Poland),Poloniny National Park (Slovakia) and the Uzhansky National Nature Park (Ukraine). Animals living in this reserve include, among others,black storks,brown bears,wolves andbison.
The mountains were used as a round in the2014 International Hill Climb Cup.
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