LAS BATUECAS NATURAL PARK

(CASTILE LEON-SPAIN)

Before the hunting reserve was limited to the valley of the Batuecas. Now the park makes up a large part of the Sierra de Francia and provides a haven for protected species such as the linx, the wolf, the mountain goat, the royal eagle, the vulture or the black stork.

But the jewel in the crown is without doubt the wild, craggy ravine which many have considered an earthly paradise:Las Batuecas.

The numerous caverns with cave paintings to be seen along the way provide evidence that a genesis occurred in this place. It's not for nothing that monks chose the entrance to this valley as the place to set up home and they also built hermitages over the mountain to meditate and be nearer to the creator.

Something never seen before in Spain, nor even imagined! So high is the mountain we've just crossed that, as i behold it, it seems a closed fortress with peaks which reach up to the very heavens. (Lope de Vega, Las Batuecas del Duque de Alba)