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The Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas mountain ranges have been granted the official protective status of a Natural Park, which means they are the perfect destination for those seeking peace and tranquillity amidst well-preserved landscapes full of natural life. The park is almost entirely free of aggressive outside interferences that might destroy its harmony, or man-made intrusions that could tarnish its purity.

This vast territory was one of the first in Andalusia to be declared a natural park and certainly deserves its status: it is the largest forested area in Spain and the breadth of its biodiversity is truly breathtaking.

The fact that it remains home to so many species of plants and animals is because their habitat is preserved to ensure the park is as attractive as possible: the rivers and lakes are clean, the forests are dense and the peaks are lofty.

Visitors will also discover towns with castles and white-washed streets and come across unexpected villages in the heart of the mountain ranges.

The Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park sets the standard for taking care of the natural environment. Covering an area of almost 210,000 hectares, the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park is the most extensive protected space in Spain and the second-largest in Europe. To get an idea of just how big it is, it covers an area similar in size to the entire province of Biscay.

Extending this protected area, there are two smaller adjoining natural parks in the provinces of Albacete and Granada: the Calares del Mundo y de la Sima Natural Park to the north and the Sierra de Castril Natural Park to the south. Together they cover some 31,000 hectares, whereby you will able to visit over 240,000 hectares of unbroken protected countryside during your visit: an area that is roughly half the size of the entire Autonomous Region of La Rioja.

You will experience a sense of freedom upon entering this vast landscape: the freedom that comes from finding yourself in a large, unspoilt territory and the freedom you will have to choose from amongst the wide variety of options in terms of areas to visit, routes to explore and diverse landscapes to enjoy. The park is a world by itself.

Our mountain ranges have been awarded every conceivable honour in recognition of their ecological and cultural value and the importance of their landscapes. The region was declared a Natural Park by the Government of Andalusia in 1986, although a substantial part of the southern half of the territory was declared a National Hunting Reserve in 1960 owing to the abundance of species such as the Spanish ibex, wild boar, red deer, fallow deer and mouflon. This reserve is today known as the Andalusian Hunting Reserve of Cazorla-Segura and covers an area of 70,000 hectares.

UNESCO turned its attentions to our mountain ranges in 1983, declaring them a Biosphere Reserve, which means they form a part of the select club of 553 enclaves in 107 countries around the globe that make up the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. These are areas that the United Nations has identified as examples of innovation in conservation, where preservation of the natural environment has been shown to act as a driving force for sustainable development.

The European Union also considers the Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas mountain ranges to number amongst the continent's most important natural spaces. In 1988 they were declared a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds, owing to their great importance to the conservation of bird species under threat of extinction. This status commits the Spanish State to their protection. An abundance and diversity of bird species demonstrate the high ecological quality of an area: the reintroduction of the bearded vulture in Andalusia via this park is a strong indication of precisely that. Moreover, thanks to the reintroduction program this extraordinary bird is now once again present to the south of the Pyrenees..

The most recent international recognition of the park came in 2006, when the European Union declared it a Site of Community Importance (SCI) and made it a part of Natura 2000, an ecological network made up of the most important areas for the preservation of Europe's biodiversity. An example of the international significance of the park resides in the fact that it is the European area that contains the second-highest number of endemic plant species, species that are found nowhere else in the world.

To ensure that visitors can enjoy this area of natural heritage whilst respecting the environment, the park was one of the first natural spaces in Spain to be accredited by the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, which forms a part of the Europarc Federation European Network. This accreditation requires a commitment to the environmental quality of tourist services and positions the park amongst Europe's areas of excellence in terms of sustainable tourism.

For several years now the mountain forests in the reserve have been managed in accordance with control systems that guarantee their sustainability. Some of these systems have been afforded Pan-European Forest Certification (PEFC), whilst others have been accredited by the even more stringent Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

This impressive series of recognitions and commitments serves as a guarantee that the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park will meet all of your expectations: a visit to our park will enable you to feel part of the natural world in all its splendour.

Spain clearly leads the rankings for biodiversity in Europe, in terms of flora, fauna and protected areas, the result of its bioclimatic diversity and its rural traditions that work with the natural environment. For its part, Andalusia boasts the most extensive area of protected territory amongst all the autonomous regions of Spain.

As a result of the natural evolution of the region and the way in which its human populations, both past and present, make and have made use of the resources of this land, Andalusia is home to a wide variety of ecosystems, of which the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park is a magnificent example.

Andalusia's great biological and geological diversity and its array of different landscapes have led it to be considered one of the richest and best-preserved regions in Europe. It is home to the Iberian lynx (the breeding site is located in the north of the province of Jaen), the imperial eagle and the last surviving wolf populations in southern Spain, also boasting extensive meadowlands and forests of ilex, cork oak and Spanish fir, the extraordinary concentration of endemic plant species in the south-eastern mountains and now the bearded vulture. Only in Andalusia can you find places as remarkable as Doñana, Grazalema, Sierra Nevada, Cabo de Gata-Níjar and the Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas mountain ranges, amongst many other locations.

At present, Andalusia boasts 156 Protected Natural Areas that together cover no less than 1.8 million hectares, accounting for over 20% of Andalusia's total land area and approximately 30% of the total surface area of protected areas in Spain: 154 areas including national parks, natural parks, semi-urban parks, natural beauty spots, protected landscapes, natural monuments and various types of nature reserve.

Jaén, the Spanish province with the large surface area of protected space.

If Andalusia is rich in natural features and landscapes, the province of Jaen is the jewel in the crown, boasting the largest surface area of protected natural spaces (304,175 hectares) in Spain, wherein attention should be drawn to its four natural parks: Despeñaperros, Sierra de Andújar, Sierra Mágina and Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas.

Jaen is a land of contrasts: its craggy mountain ranges covered in wild vegetation and its rolling countryside and meadowlands, for the most part given over to olive cultivation, afford the province a markedly diverse landscape. The confluence of Jaen's varied environmental features makes its biodiversity one of the most important, not only in Spain, but in Europe as a whole.