"LA SUBBÉTICA"

General description

The Nature Environment

The villages

General description

The Subbética is a district made up  of fourteen towns in the south of the province of Córdoba, in the heart of Andalucía. This privileged location means that the Costa del Sol and the cities of Córdoba and Jaén are no more than an hour away, and Seville can be reached in less than two hours.

Comarca de la Subbética

Visitors to the Subbética find a district full of attractive propositions, where the Nature Environment and others protected areas, its historical and artistic heritage, its archaeological sites, its craft work and popular traditios all reflect the richness of a series of charming and welcoming towns, not forgetting their gastronomy and traditional agricultural products.

The Subbética, which covers 159.190 hectares and has a total population of 117.000 inhabitants, is made up of fourteen towns, the smallest of which has nine hundred inhabitants, and the biggest fourty thousand.

Zuheros, desde el Río Bailón

The area has a Mediterranean climate with an atlantic influence, with intermittent rainfall in winter and practically none at all in summer. Temperatures range from 29.5şC in summer to the 9şC that towns such as Priego, Rute or Iznájar experience en winter.

The Nature Environment

The Nature Environment of "Sierras Subbéticas" was granted official protected in 1988. The enormous environmental and scenic wealth of the Park's 31.568 hectares is spread out in varying proportions among eight towns of the Subbética community: Cabra, Carcabuey, Dońa Mencía, Iznájar, Luque, Priego de Córdoba, Rute and Zuheros.

The most characteristic feature of this semi-mountainous area es the beautiful karst shaping of the limestone rock. The steep slopes and rugged crags of the mountains look down onto beautiful narrow valleys.

Poljé de la Nava

Río Bailón en el Poljé de la Nava

Route by the river Bailón

The vagetation in the Park is typically Mediterranean, with an abundance of holm oaks and gall oaks, as well as maples and hackberries. One of the Park's great attractions is the number of endemic species.

As far as fauna is concerned, the Park is home to mammals such as the wild cat, boar, common fox and European Hedgehog, though the most peculiar is the Cabrera shrew.

There is also a wide variety of bird life in the Park, including the blak wheatear, hoopoe, cuckoo, red-legged partridge, rock bunting and common and alpine swift. In the outcrops and limestone crags the golden eagle, griffon vulture and short-toed eagle have all made their home, together with the peregrine falcon, which is the Park's emblem, Other birds of prey include the common kestres and several species of owl, including the eagle owl. The Park is also home to an impressive variety of butterflies.

The villages

Another villages to visit:

Carcabuey: The castle and the Hermitage of the Virgen del Castillo.

The castle

Dońa Mencía: The castle which was rebuilt by Alvar Pérez de Castro (captain of Fernando III), who named it after his wife, Dońa Mencía.

Fuente Tójar: The History museum, where most of the pieces are kept from El Cerro de las Cabezas, an Iberian-Roman settlement (Iliturgicola).

Fiesta de Los Danzantes

Iznájar: The castle, whose watchtower was inspiration to the poet Rafael Alberti. The parish church of Santiago, from the XVIth century.

Carcabuey: at 16 kms.

Dońa Mencía: at 20 kms.

Fuente Tójar: at 13 kms.

Iznájar: at 37 kms.

CR La Torre: Capacidad 2 personas

CR El Camino: Capacidad 4 personas