Natuurpark Sierras de Cazorla-Segura y las Villas - Jaen, Spain

pa030359

pa030380

pa040381

pa030356

pa020237

cimg9717

cimg9723

cimg9715

pa040416

cimg9643

cimg9668

cimg9656

Met haar 214.300 hectaren, is het natuurpark 'Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas'  één van de grootste natuurreservaten in Spanje. Het is ook een beschermd gebied voor vogels en het meest bezochte park vanwege zijn natuurschoon en cultureel/historisch belang.

(nog verder te vertalen)

With its rugged relief and heights of over 2,000 metres, Empanadas (2.106 m), La Cabrilla (2.032 m) and Cabañas (2.028 m), the park is a succession of mountains, ravines, valleys, calares and flat lands. Its mountains are the birthplace of the Segura and Guadalquivir rivers. During the 18th century, its forests were used to build a large number of the ships in the spanish fleet, and an admiralty being established here.

Its most important economic resources are based on the olive oil – sheep – wood triangle; to a lesser degree on big game hunting and fishing, and especially on tourism.

Villages and other places of interest in or near Cazorla nature reserve

The nature reserve of Cazorla-Segura y las Villas embrace some twenty towns, al worth mentioning and visiting.

Beas de Segura, Benatae, Cazorla, Chilluévar, Coto Ríos, Génave, Hinojares, Hornos, Huesa, Iznatoraf, La Iruela, Orcera, Peal de Becerro, Pozo Alcón, La Puerta de Segura, Quesada, Santiago-Pontones, Santo Tomé, Segura de la Sierra, Siles, Sorihuela del Guadalimar, Torres de Albánchez, Villacarrillo and Villanueva del Arzobispo.

Other places of interest nearby

• Tranco de Beas reservoir, with the remains of the small Castle of San Miguel de Bujaraiza.
• La Bolera and Aguas Negras Reservoirs.
• Lagoons of Anchuricas and Valdeazores.
• Fuente Negra, Cañada Catena, Montiñana, Los Parrales, Fuente Higuera.
• Bayona, Fresnedilla and El Robledo.
• Coto Ríos, Llanos de Arance, Fuente de la Pascuala.
• El Yelmo.
• Refuges of el Saucejo and Cueva del Peinero.
• La Hortizuela, los Panales, Morajallinas and Valdemarín.
• The Templar Castle and the Tiscar viewpoint.
• The Arab and Christian Castles of Cazorla.
• Segura de la Sierra Historic Artistic Site.

Wildlife in Cazorla

With regard to wildlife, among its 36 mammal species, we must point out the Spanish Ibex and some others, such as the deer, the fallow deer and the Ovis musimon. Otters, genets, stone martens and foxes stand out among the carnivores. Also wild boars, polecats, badgers and squirrels. The segureño wolf became extinct in the 1930’s.

Among the birds, we have to highlight the golden eagle and the aguila perdicera (Hieraetus fasciatus), vultures, kites, egyptian vultures, owls, barn owls, tawny owls, kingfishers and blackbirds. A small reptile lives between the cracks in the rocks: the wall lizard of Valverde, discovered in 1958 , a species that can only be found in this area. There are unique insects and a great variety of fish: common and rainbow trout, barbels and bogas (Boops boops) are incentives for anyone who enjoys fishing.

Vegetation

Tranco LagoonThis Natural Park contains some of the richest vegetation in the whole of the Mediterranean basin. Of the more than 1,300 species catalogued, 24 belong exclusively to this area.

Madrona, lentisk, wild jasmin o sarsaparrilla. Gall oaks, servales and box; maple forests, melojares (groves of Quercus Pirenaica) and hazel woods. To be highlighted, Ilex aquifolium, Tussilago farfara, Viburnum opalus, Astragalus glyciphylos, Hepatica nobilis. Pine forests, both indigenous and sub-spontaneous or repopulated, are frequent. Also salgareño pines, junipers and sabinas rastreras (Juniperus Sabina), next to fields of thyme.

The unfavourable weather conditions (snow in winter, stifling heat in summer, wind, lack of soil, etc) allow the presence of species of high ecological value, amongst which, numerous exclusive endemic species must be mentioned: Geranium cazorlense, Hormatophylla baetica, Aquilegia cazorlensis, Erodium cazorlanum, etc., some of them endangered. Among the great variety of flowers in the area we must point out the existence of more than a hundred endemic species from Andalusia and the surrounding mountains, among which we have to highlight the “Cazorla violet” (Viola cazorlensis) and the “Venus’s fly-trap” (Pinguicula vallisnerifolia), for their beauty and ecological importance. In the Botanic Gardens of the Torre del Vinagre, next to the Reception and Interpretation Centre, most of the trees in the park are displayed, grouped by associations and distributed in height levels.