---
title: "Nature parks in the Harz - Harzer Tourismusverband e.V."
url: "https://www.harzinfo.de/en/pure-nature/nature-parks-harz"
description: "Between the peaks of the Brocken plateau and the hill ranges of the foreland, the Harz Mountains offer a diversity of landscapes that is rarely found elsewhere in a comparatively small area."
language: "en"
breadcrumb: "Root > Harzinfo > Pure Nature > Nature parks Harz"
---

Nature parks
============

 

Diverse uniqueness
------------------

Between the  and the hill ranges of the foreland, the Harz reveals a **great variety of landscapes** within a small area. Deciduous, mixed, and coniferous forests alternate with deep valleys, wild rivers, and open mountain meadows. Pristine natural landscapes and traces of centuries of settlement lie close together.

The nature parks of the Harz are among the **regions richest in species in Germany**. This is due to the combination of different altitudes – from the river lowlands in the northern foothills to the tree line in the Upper Harz – and contrasting climatic influences: Atlantic in the west, continental in the east.

This diversity is also reflected in the animal world. Wildcats, fire salamanders, dippers, and grey wagtails live in the forests. The Tengmalm’s owl is considered the symbol of the nature park.

 

### The Nature Parks in the Harz

In the Harz, you can discover five legally independent nature parks:

- 
- **Lower Saxony**
- **909 km²**
- **Founded in 1960**

- 
- **Saxony-Anhalt**
- **1,660 km²**
- **Founded in 2003**

- **(Mansfelder Land)**
- **Saxony-Anhalt**
- **256 km²**
- **Founded in 2012**

- 
- **Thuringia**
- **267 km²**
- **Founded in 2010**

- 
- **Thuringia**
- **305 km²**
- **Founded in 1994**

 

> There are currently over 100 nature parks in Germany. They serve both to protect and preserve cultural landscapes with their biotope and species diversity and to provide recreation, sustainable tourism, environmentally sound land use, and education for sustainable development.

Federal Agency for Nature Conservation

 

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