Pálava Protected Landscape Area
Palava is a conservation area in the southeast of the Czech Republic. It was proclaimed on 19 March 1976 in an area of 83 km ². The reserve is located about 40 kilometers south of the Moravian city of Brno and the hills Pavlov hills comprises ( Palava ), the forest Milovický les ( Millowitzer Forest) and the south of it lying valley to the border with Austria.
The hill on the outskirts of the northern Vienna Basin forming the westernmost part of the Outer Western Carpathians and are also part of the washing mountain zone. The highest point is the hill Devin ( Maiden Berg) with 554 m nm The northern boundary is the dam on the River Thaya in Nové Mlýny ( Neumühl ), where 163 m nm is the lowest point. The habitats include species-rich rock, grass and meadow steppe, forest steppe, thermophile beech woods and ravine forests on a bedrock of Jurassic limestone. In the floodplain of the Thaya between Nové Mlýny and Bulhary ( Pulgram ) to riparian forests alternate with other wetland or water biotopes from.
The natural history and historically unique valley floor along the meandering river Thaya north of Nové Mlýny and directly at the eastern foot of Palava with the then largest alluvial forest in Central Europe with rich flora and fauna as well as numerous archaeological sites ( Stone Age, Roman Antiquity, the Middle Ages) was in the 1980's flooded after the construction of a huge dreigliederigen Stauesees and thus largely destroyed. The main purpose of the dam construction, the supply of an extensive agricultural irrigation system, was never reached it.
Culture and colonization
Palava is located in one of the warmest and driest regions of the Czech Republic in the midst of an ancient culture and settlement landscape. The area of Dolni Věstonie ( Unterwisternitz ) on the northern edge was already densely populated in the Stone Age; by the present findings is particularly the Venus of Dolni Věstonie become known, 25000-29000 year old ceramic figurine. The plains surrounding the hills is used for intensive agriculture. The town of Mikulov ( Mikulov ) on the southern edge of Palava is one of the centers of the Moravian viticulture. The landscape of the hill itself is shaped by millennia of human use, the original forests have given way to a karst forest-steppe. The ecological value caused by the exceptional in the Czech Republic combination of geological and climatic conditions.
Nature Reserves
The most valuable parts of the landscape are under special protection: nine nature reserves and five natural monuments are shown on the site. The area is part of a bird sanctuary, the wetlands are part of the composite Mokřady Dolního Podyjí, which is protected by the Ramsar Convention. In 1986, the UNESCO Palava on the international network of biosphere reserves. In 2003, the area was expanded and renamed as a Biosphere Reserve Lower Morava, which the Pálava member since then.
Small-scale protected areas:
- National Nature Reserves: Devin - Kotel - Soutěska; Tabulová, Růžový vrch a Kočičí kámen; Křivé Jezero; Slanisko u Nesytu; Svatý kopeček u Mikulova
- Nature Reserves: Milovická stráň; Svatý kopeček; Turold; Liščí vrch; Šibeničník
- National Natural Monument: Kalendář věků
- Natural Monuments: Růžový Kopec; Kienberg; Kočičí skala; Anenský vrch