The Sierras of Extremadura. Gisela Radant Wood
over 2000m. They are snow-covered for up to six months of the year. Springs that well up high in the sierras are engorged with snow melt and form numerous rivers which keep the valleys permanently green.
South of these mountains lies the Tajo river basin with its main tributaries: the Tiétar, Alagón, Almonte and Ibor. The Tajo is the longest river in the Iberian peninsula.
Strung across the middle of Extremadura are the Montes de Toledo with numerous smaller granite sierras. Some, such as the Sierra de San Pedro in the west, are low hills rather than mountains, but the Sierra de Montánchez reaches a respectable 994m.
The mountains in the Sierra de las Villuercas are not granite; their geological structure is mainly composed of slates and quartzites and the walking experience is very different there. The sierras run parallel to each other, largely ruling out circular walks. The Almonte and Ibor rivers, which flow north to feed the Tajo, rise in Las Villuercas while the Ruecas and Guadalupe rivers are tributaries of the Guadiana river to the south.
The Guadiana is also fed by the Zújar and Matachel tributaries and forms part of the border between the two provinces. As it flows west and turns south it becomes the border with Portugal. The river feeds the Orellana canal system, which irrigates thousands of hectares of agricultural land producing maize, rice and tomatoes among other crops.
The Sierra Morena, with peaks over 1000m, lies to the south and straddles the border between Extremadura and Andalucia. The sierra is made up of granite and quartzite, as well as softer materials such as slate and gneiss. While on average 1000m lower than the peaks in the Sistema Central, the Sierra Morena is nevertheless an important mountain range within the overall geography of Spain. It provides the watershed for two of the peninsula’s five major rivers: the Guadiana to the north of the sierra and the Guadalquivar to the south.
The Jaranda Valley near Guijo (Walk 14)
Animals and birds
The wildlife in Extremadura is still genuinely wild. Depending on the habitat and the time of the year that you visit, red deer, wild boar, rabbit, Iberian hare, fox, badger, wild cat, pine marten, genet, otter and mongoose may be seen. Lynx are much rarer.
Extremadura has long been known by birdwatchers as a very special place. It is on many migratory routes, with diverse species stopping off in summer or winter. Cranes feed in their thousands in wetlands. Storks make nests on every available high spot on churches and castles alike. The mountains provide habitats for many species of vulture, eagle, harrier, buzzard, kite and hawk. The forests house pigeons, doves and woodpeckers – very often heard but not seen. The river valleys are home to the heron, stork, lapwing, grebe, ducks and any number of smaller water-loving birds. The open expanses provide homes to great bustards, especially in La Serena in the south-east of Extremadura. The general countryside is full of azure-winged magpie, colourful bee-eater, flashy hoopoe, crested lark, shrike, golden oriole, dove, owl and many small songbirds.
Griffon vultures can be seen from many of the walks in this book
Flowers and plants
Extremadura’s natural habitats support an enormous diversity of flowers, flowering bushes, trees and vegetation. In spring it is impossible to do many of the walks in this book without stepping on carpets of colour created by thousands of wildflowers: Barbary nut, Spanish iris, field gladiolus, foxglove, asphodel, birdsfoot trefoil, snake’s-head fritillary, lupin, yellow and white daisy, vetch and orchid. The distinctive purple that covers the dehesa in April and May is courtesy of viper’s bugloss.
Clockwise from left: Cystus Albidus; aricia Agestis on a Leontodon Hispidus; lichen on granite boulder; sawfly orchid (Ophrys Tenthredinifera)
Poor soil and stony sierra slopes are no barrier to tough but beautiful bushes: white and pink flowering cistus, white and yellow broom, retama, lavender, Mediterranean Daphne, Spanish heath, rosemary, juniper and tansy. They form a backdrop to the walks in spring and early summer.
Agriculture has provided numerous trees that add their own colourful blossoms in spring: olive, cherry, orange and almond trees have been cultivated for over a millennium. The sight of the Jerte valley in spring, covered in cherry blossom as far as the eye can see, is unforgettable. The leaves of the fig trees of Almoharín give shade in the summer, and in the winter their bare branches add a sculptural structure to the countryside.
Within the huge forests are the indigenous oaks – holm, cork and Pyrenean. Spanish chestnut, terebinth, alder and a variety of pine underpin the diversity of trees so important to the ecology of the area.
Human history
During the long Stone Age, small clans of hunter-gatherers arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, as evidenced by cave paintings in the region. By the Bronze Age, settlements of livestock herders, agriculturalists and harvesters were established. In the Iron Age separate societies emerged.
Rock painting, Sierra de Peñas Blancas (Walk 27)
The Phoenicians were the first traders to reach up the rivers into the area that would become Extremadura. They were followed by the Greeks, whose main trading partners were the Celtiberians, a group of distinct and merged tribes of Iberians and Celts. They had arrived, possibly from Gaul, in sporadic waves between 3000 and 700BC. The Lusitani, who settled on both sides of the River Tajo, and the Vettones, their allies, who settled in the Alagón valley, along with the Turduli/Turdetani were the principal tribes occupying Extremadura. The countryside is littered with the reminders of their tradition of building dolmens to bury their dead.
The Carthaginians followed the Phoenicians around 575BC. They were originally happy just to trade, but after they lost the First Punic War to Rome (264–241BC) they established a small military presence to salvage their pride. The Lusitani and the Vettones were not about to let that happen: for over 30 years they resisted the Carthaginians in a sustained guerrilla war.
The Romans came to Iberia to fight their enemy the Carthaginians. After defeating them the Romans looked around at the wealth of the region – mainly in agriculture but also in metals and marble – and they stayed. They established camps, built defensive forts and intermarried with the local population. The capital of Lusitania, their westernmost province, was established at Ermita Augusta, today’s Mérida. After the Roman Empire fell, the Visigoths held sway from early AD400 to 711 when the first of many invasions by Arab and Berber tribes, collectively known as the Moors, started. It took the Visigoths, mixed with peoples from the north of Spain and reinvented as the Christians, 500 years to reconquer Extremadura.
Horses are still a part of everyday life for many local people
In the 1500s, Extremadura provided the majority of conquistadores for the plundering of the New World. Trujillo and Cáceres still display the results of some of the wealth brought back, but most of the treasure went to fighting interminable religious wars. Extremadura gradually slid into obscurity; the landlords lived as landlords do while the people worked the land in abject poverty.
The Peninsula Wars of the early 19th century ravaged the land. The forces of Spain, Portugal and the British on the one hand, and Napoleonic France on the other, pillaged their way through the region. The 20th century brought no respite: the civil war saw defeat for republican-minded people. Dictator Franco took his revenge in neglect of the area for decades. Many people sought work in other European countries; people over 60 may not speak English but very often have enough Dutch or German to pass a pleasant time of day with visitors from those countries.
Today, modern roads and investment in agriculture and tourism have brought a new dynamic to the region.