The Cazorla Segura and Las Villas Natural Park has an area of 209,934 hectares. protected areas that encompass the almost 70,000 h of the Andalusian Hunting Reserve with a northeast-southeast orientation of the province of Jaén, Andalusia, Spain.
MUNICIPALITIES
This extensive Natural Park is made up of 23 municipalities and 3 more in the area of influence. Of these, the Sierra de Cazorla region corresponds: Cazorla, Chilluévar, Hinojares, Huesa, La Iruela, Peal de Becerro, Pozo Alcón, Quesada and Santo Tomé. Sierra de Segura region: Arroyo del Ojanco, Beas de Segura, Benatae, Génave, Hornos de Segura, Orcera, Puente Génave, Segura de la Sierra, Siles, Torres de Albánchez, La Puerta de Segura, Santiago-Pontones and Villarrodrigo. Sierra de Las Villas region: includes the municipalities of Iznatoraf, Sorihuela de Guadalimar, Villacarrillo and Villanueva del Arzobispo.
EXISTING PROTECTIONS
In 1986 the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park was declared, Andalusian Cazorla y Segura Hunting Reserve, a Biosphere Reserve declared by UNESCO (1983), in 1988 the European Union declared it a Special Area for the Protection of Birds (SPA). More recent are the declarations of Site of Community Interest (SCI) in 2006 (Natura 2000 Network) and World Heritage Site for the sites of cave paintings of the “Levantine Arc” and the adhesion to the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (CETS) of EUROPARC, in 2004 and renewed in September 2024 and SICTED in 2011.
ALTITUDES (m)
- Cerro de las Empanadas (2107 m)
- Alto de la Cabrilla (2078 m)
- Cerro de los Tornajos (2038 m)
- Cabins (2028 m)
- Cerro Villalta (1910 m)
- Peña Juana (1886 m)
- Rayal (1835 m)
- Gilillo (1847 m)
RIVERS: Guadalquivir, Segura, Borosa, Aguamula, Guadalentín, Cerezuelo or Cazorla, Zumeta, Madera…
RESERVOIRS: El Tranco, La Bolera, Anchuricas, Aguascebas, E. de la Vieja, Aguas Negras Reservoir.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS
The area occupied by the Natural Park is part of the set of mountain alignments that make up the Baetic Mountain Ranges. Within the Pre-Baetic zone, the northernmost and outermost is where this natural space is located. Stratigraphically, the Sierras de Cazorla and Las Villas are characterised by extensive outcrops of Jurassic materials, mainly made up of dolomites with some alternations of clays and correspond to the Outer Pre-Baetic. While the Sierras de Segura, del Pozo and La Cabrilla (Internal Pre-Baetic) present a series of materials with features similar to that of the External Pre-Baetic although smaller in extension. Cretaceous materials are mainly made up of marl, limestone and sandy stretches and at the base and reef limestones or dolomites in the upper part.
Georesources
Valley of the Borosa River, where the syncline of the Arroyo de las Truchas, the anticline of the Puente de los Caracolillos; the Cerrada de Elías and the travertine cornices of the Organs. The Cerrada de Utrero, the lapiaz of Linarejos and Torcal Llano, the Karst and chasm of Pinar Negro, the source of the Segura River…
FLORA
These mountain ranges have been a refuge for numerous plant species, currently the floristic catalog amounts to about 2,200 species among which there are 215 Iberian and Ibero-North African endemisms, 110 Andalusian endemic and more than 35 local endemic species, such as Aquilegiacazorlensis, Erodium-cazorlanum, Pinguiculavallisneriifolia… A special mention is the Viola Cazorlensis, (discovered by the botanist Abbé Gandoger in the years 1902-1903), a plant of reduced size that lives, in many cases, on the cracks, with carmine flowers. Also noteworthy are long-lived feet of millenary yews, gall oaks and hundred-year-old hollies and the oldest Salgareño or laricio pines in Spain, more than a hundred of them are more than 600 to 800 years old and three of them are close to 1100 years old.
FAUNA
It is very rich and varied, with a large number of different species with the added peculiarity of finding among the species present some that find their eastern chorological limit in these mountains, as is the case of the common salamander and in other groups such as birds, northern species that find their southernmost limit of presence here. as well as others as emblematic within the Iberian fauna that are the subject of ambitious conservation plans such as the bearded vulture or the Egyptian vulture.
Among the vertebrates, the following can be distinguished: 12 species of fish such as the exceptional and endangered common trout, gypsy barbel, horn, boga, all of them autochthonous; 21 species of reptiles, including an endemism, the Valverde lizard, cloud lizard, leper and European pond turtle, ocellated lizard, ladder snake, horseshoe snake, the snouted viper…; 11 species of
amphibians, Baetic midwife toad, gallipato, Iberian newt, Iberian midwife toad, runner toad…, 186 species of birds, from the most emblematic such as the golden eagle, short-toed eagle, Bonelli’s eagle, Egyptian vulture, griffon vulture, bearded vulture, eagle owl, tawny owl, scops owl…; to the small winged jewels that inhabit our environment, less known, but of an undiminished importance.
A paragon for the maintenance of ecological balance, seed dispersal or pest control, such as the Mistle Thrush, the specialized crossbills or the exceptionally active parlids (chickadees and)… and 51 mammals (including the unique and agile Ibex (ungulate par excellence of these mountains), deer, wild boar;
native species present in these mountains, fallow deer and mouflons with fairly healthy populations but of non-native origin in both cases, and with the hope of recovering the roe deer (the first ungulate to disappear from our mountains). Other orders of mammals are also worth mentioning, although less known for their less conspicuous habits such as the wildcat, fox, otter, squirrel…, 14 species of bats, such as rhinolophobes (genus Rhinolophus) or horseshoe bats and cave bats…
Invertebrates are also largely unknown, not only because of their small size, but also because of the animosity that many of their forms arouse among humans (spiders, bees, scolopendra…), but the importance of their presence in ecosystems is undeniable, carrying out exclusive functions reserved for them in Mediterranean ecosystems, such as plant pollination, the elimination of remains of dead plants…, but on the other hand and sometimes they constitute pests that can cause great damage as is the case of the pine processionary, or the hairy lizard on the holm oaks. Of special mention are the 112 species of diurnal butterflies (exceptional species such as the Graellsia Isabelae Ceballosi), 181 species of nocturnal butterflies (moths), 64 species of grasshoppers, or species such as the holm oak capricorn, Cerambix pig (one of the first strictly protected invertebrates in Europe) or the “Wild Male” Acanthocinus edulis among the beetles, without forgetting groups such as those of bees,
wasps and ants or the elegant dragonflies and damselflies…
BEST TIME FOR VISITS: All times of the year.
MONUMENTS: Historic Sites of Cazorla and La Iruela.
GASTRONOMY: The cuisine of Cazorla and its Sierra has traditionally been of great sobriety. Our gastronomy is
defined by the climate itself, with an abundant and rich seasoning of spices, by the products of the environment: game,
river fishing, flour, legumes, fresh vegetables…, all seasoned with the touch of quality provided by the excellent oil
of our olive groves. We will mention some of the dishes full of tradition, knowledge and popular flavor, always prepared by the men and
women of our mountains with the narrowness of a self-subsistence economy but also with the best and most
natural that they had in their hands, with the know-how of their parents and their parents’ parents.
With the flour that arrived from the flour mills of the countryside, dishes were made that today are typical of our land such as the “Gachamiga’; crumbs of flour, accompanied by torreznos, dried and fried peppers, chorizo, black pudding, and even, depending on the season, melon, cherries, grapes and other fruits. The “Talarines”, thin cakes of flour dough with water and salt, stewed with hare or rabbit meat
, nízcalos or “guíscanos” as they are called here, and without missing the aromatic touch provided by the mint. Without a doubt, a model dish of the most traditional cuisine. Also very typical of these mountain lands is the “Rin-ran” a good starter on any table, spread on the traditional “pan serrano”. The ”Rinran’ is a cold mashed potato and dried red peppers with olives and cod, flavoured, according to the customs of almost every house, with cumin and other spices.
And our pork and wild boar sausages, and the ham from our Sierra cured and cared for with great care to honour the best tables with their presence. Try our sausages, venison pâtés, fallow deer, wild boar, black pudding or partridge, our Serrano ham and you will not be able to resist the temptation to take home some new “souvenir” of Cazorla that you had not anticipated.
And to savor our meats, do not miss the opportunity to try the “Leg or Head of Lamb”; roast with dressings …; or the “Carne de monte”: fallow deer, deer, wild boar…, in multiple and varied preparations: baked, in different sauces, in stew…; or the “Tacos de lomo” in adobo. Meats in their seasoning and the best condiments. Among the desserts we highlight, grandma’s porridge, “sweet rice”; the “entanglements”; The “manjar blanco, the meloja, will delight those with a sweet tooth. All well washed down with a good “cuerva” or with esparteña wine, which although scarce. It is typical of this region. To finish, a glass of risol or homemade mistela, pacharán serrano and preparing digestion, some infusions of aromatic plants from the Sierra: stone tea, pennyroyal,