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Part of
the Sierra Morena, the Sierra de Cardeña y Montoro
covers 38,449ha of gently rolling hills in the far northeastern
corner of Cordoba province.
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The Sierra de Hornachuelos
extends for 60,032ha and is part of the vast 400,000ha Unesco
Biosphere Reserve for the Sierra Morena mountain range.
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The central
section of the immense Sierra Morena is made up of the extensive
and sparsely populated Sierra Norte Natural Park.
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The Sierra Morena is an area of sparsely populated
rolling hills that run across northern Andalucia, creating a natural
barrier between Extremadura to the north and Andalucia. Few tourists
venture into these wild and remote pine- and oak-clad hills, with
its landscape, atmosphere and village architecture more typical
of adjacent Extremadura or Castilla La Mancha than the rest of Andalucia,
to which it belongs.
If you want to explore the distant hills, head for
the area´s coal-mining villages. Although not as picturesque
as the whitewashed villages in the south of the province, the granite
houses have their own brooding appeal. Espiel clings to the mountainside,
while Bélmez is in a similarly magnificent spot on
a rocky crag topped by a castle. One of the last villages before
Extremadura is Fuente Obejuna, where the hated lord was dragged
from his mansion by the villagers and publicly executed in 1476.
This dramatic event was immortalised by the famous 17th-century
playwright Lope de Vega in his work Fuenteovejuna.
On the western flank of Cordoba´s Sierra Morena
is the densely wooded Sierra de Hornachuelos Natural Park,
which is similar in its gently rolling hills to the bordering Sierra
Norte Natural Park in Seville Province. Like the Sierra
Norte, the Sierra de Hornachuelos has been designated a Unesco Biosphere
Reserve for its principal land use: the dehesa, the mix of pasture
- used for grazing livestock - and woodland - used for cork and
producing charcoal. These extensive dehesas, typically wooded with
cork and holm oaks, are a common feature of the Sierra Morena.
On the Sierra Morena´s eastern side is the
Sierra de Cardeña y Montoro Natural Park,
its Mediterranean woodland sheltering one of the last refuges of
the highly endangered lynx, along with the rare wolf. Birds of prey
are frequently seen soaring overhead and the park is to home to
one of Andalucia´s largest colonies of black vultures. Don´t
miss Montoro, an attractive town located on a hill above the Guadalquivir
river and a good base for exploring the park.
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