Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas

The Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park occupies the north-east of the province of Jaén and links the eastern sector of the Sierra Morena with the Subbetic System. At 209,762.7 hectares it is the largest protected natural area in Spain and the second largest in Europe, and its territory is shared by twenty-three municipalities with some 80,000 inhabitants, so that the degree of protection varies by zone and across most of the park conservation coexists with economic activity. Its highest point is the Empanadas peak, at 2,107 m.

It is a landscape of middle and high limestone mountains, with valleys, gorges and narrows cut by water, and a forest cover dominated by Spanish black pine. Two of the great Iberian rivers rise here: the Guadalquivir, which springs at the Cañada de las Fuentes and crosses the park from south to north before turning towards the Atlantic, and the Segura, which rises in the range of the same name and empties into the Mediterranean. That watershed position and its compartmentalised relief have favoured a high degree of endemism: the Cazorla violet, Valverde's lizard, a diminutive narcissus and several carnivorous plants are among the species exclusive or almost exclusive to the massif. The most representative flora is brought together in the Torre del Vinagre botanical garden.

Protection predates the natural park: in 1960 the area was declared a National Hunting Reserve, and in 1983 UNESCO recognised it as a Biosphere Reserve. Declaration as a Natural Park came with Decree 10/1986 and was ratified by Act 2/1989, which approved the Inventory of Protected Natural Areas of Andalusia. Later came designation as a Special Protection Area for Birds, accession to the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in 2004, inclusion as a Site of Community Importance in 2006 and declaration as a Special Area of Conservation in 2017. It is one of the most visited natural areas in Spain.