The Pollino National Park is Italy’s largest protected area, with a surface of more than 180,000 hectares and 56 Municipalities belonging to the provinces of Potenza, Matera and Cosenza. It is named after one of its three massifs, the Pollino Massif, located along the border between Basilicata and Calabria regions. The Park’s highest peaks, made of calcareous and dolomite rocks, are higher than 2,000 metres.

The karstification of the landscape resulted in caves, sinkholes and deep gorges. The Park is the kingdom of the Bosnian Pine (known in Italian as pino loricato), which is also its symbol: this twisted pine clings on the rocks, in the most hostile areas, and it can resist to snow storms and wind. The Park boasts a varied flora, represented by 1,700 species, including 366 listed medicinal plants. The most important landscapes of the Park are the Mediterranean vegetation and the montane ecosystem.

Thanks to its geographical features, the Park has become the ideal habitat of a very varied fauna. Today, some Arbëreshë communities, arrived in Italy in the early 1500s to escape the Turkish domination, live in the Park.