Austria's and Denmark's National Parks in the Order They Were Founded, From Hohe Tauern in 1981 to North Zealand in 2018

Founded in 1981 and about 1,834 square kilometers, this is by far the largest national park in Austria and the largest nature reserve in the Alps. Its core zone of 1,198 square kilometers, including the Grossglockner and Grossvenediger massifs, bans agricultural use entirely, while the fringe zone is still used for forestry and alpine meadow farming.

Founded in 1996, this park covers 93 square kilometers in Vienna and Lower Austria. It protects one of the largest remaining Danube floodplains in Middle Europe, a belt of lowland forest, meadow and wetland just downstream of the capital, so the path moves from the high Alps to a river plain.

Founded in 1997 in Upper Austria, the Limestone Alps park covers about 208 square kilometers. Its ancient beech forests are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site for the Carpathian and other European beech forests, recognized for their undisturbed condition.

Founded in 2000, this is a small park of 13.3 square kilometers on the Czech border, linked to Podyji National Park on the other side. The Thaya river cuts a steep breakthrough valley around a gneiss mountain, and part of the core zone is certified as WILDForest.

Established on 26 October 2002 in Styria, the Gesäuse covers 110 square kilometers of the Ennstal Alps, where the Enns river cuts a steep water gap between Admont and Hieflau. Its highest peak, Hochtor, reaches 2,369 meters.

Designated on 29 June 2007 and opened to the public in 2008, Thy is the first national park in Denmark. It runs about 55 kilometers along the northwest Jutland coast between Hanstholm and Agger Tange, protecting dunes, sandy heath, bog and small lakes, and it also holds Stone Age remains and German fortifications from the Second World War.

Designated on 17 January 2008 and effective from 2010, this park covers the Danish part of the Wadden Sea, including Fanø, Mandø and Rømø, and at about 1,466 square kilometers it is by far the largest Danish national park outside Greenland. More than 10 million migratory birds pass through twice a year, and the site joined a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.

Announced in January 2008 and inaugurated by Queen Margrethe II in August 2009, Mols Bjerge covers about 180 square kilometers of hills near Ebeltoft in central Jutland. About a third is farmed and roughly four fifths of the hill area stays in private ownership, and the park holds the fourteenth century ruins of Kalø Castle.

Established in 2015 about 30 kilometers from Copenhagen, this park covers about 170 square kilometers of Ice Age landscape and part of Roskilde Fjord. It is named for the legendary Skjoldung dynasty and is run through agreements with landowners, because people live and farm there.

Established in 2018, this is the newest stop, covering about 26,250 hectares of forest, lake and cultural landscape around the Gribskov forest and Esrum So. It also takes in Arreso, the largest lake in Denmark by surface area, and holds dolmens, medieval ruins and royal palaces.