Charming places ›Jaén › Sierra de Cazorla
Sierra de Cazorla
Jaén · Andalucía
Photo: Benjamin Smith · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park, in northeast Jaén, exceeds 209,000 hectares and is the largest protected area in Spain and the second largest in Europe. It has been a Biosphere Reserve since 1983, a natural park since 1986 and a Special Protection Area for Birds since 1988, and covers 23 municipalities.
Its relief, from the Prebetic system, brings together calares (limestone plateaus), canyons and karst landscapes, with altitudes between 500 and 2,107 metres (Cerro las Empanadas). The Guadalquivir has its official source at the Cañada de las Fuentes, in Quesada, and the river Segura rises at Fuente Segura, at 1,413 metres.
More than 1,300 plant species have been catalogued, 24 of them endemic, and it holds the largest continuous extent of pine forest in Spain. Red deer, Spanish ibex, wild boar, mouflon and fallow deer live here, as well as griffon vultures and golden eagles. In 1748 the Sierra de Segura was declared a maritime province, which meant massive use of its timber to build ships.
Source of the information: Parque natural de las Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas (Wikipedia)
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