Birding Holidays

Monfragüe National Park, Extremadura ( Spain)[IGEO TV]

Monfragüe is located in Extremadura (Spain), in Cáceres province, near to the cities of Plasencia, Trujillo and Navalmoral de la Mata. Its backbone is the Tajo River that elapses through gentle mountains and extensive pastures.

Since becoming a protected space, has consolidated itself as a perfect place for bird-watching (birding). In this park you can enjoy the flight of black storks, vultures, imperial eagles or Egyptian vultures. Monfragüe also includes some unique landscapes and vegetation, one of the best preserved examples of Mediterranean forests. Thanks to these unique characteristics, in 2007 was constituted as a National Park.

But Monfragüe counts also with numerous samples of human presence throughout history, since the landscape offers the conditions for human settlement, such as water, forest with fruits, hunting, etc... The most remarkable human remains are the paintings that shelter
Monfragüe mountain ridge, highlighting the Castle Cave, southern to the Corchuelas Range. The area surrounding the park lists numerous remains from different periods, both pre-Roman and Roman, being these to which we owe the current name, since he was named as Monsfragorum(dense hill).

During the Middle Age, these lands have been marked by the Muslim occupation where, according to the chronicles of the time, the Monfragüe Castle was built, reaching today the remains of numerous restorations that were made by military orders which captured this stronghold . The round tower is from the XII century and the pentagonal tower from the XV century.

In the XV century was built also the Cardenal Bridge, facilitating communications between Plasencia and Trujillo. Inside the National Park we find only one settlement, Villarreal de San Carlos, which is a district that belongs to the town of Serradilla , which was founded by Charles III to control the robberies performed by bandits in the area.



Watch Video Teide National Park:

Wild Spain - an Extremadura Special

'Wild Spain' - a shoddy piss-take wildlife documentary by The Special Four during their adventure to Extremadura. Bad acting, terrible script-writing and filmed and edited on location on a phone. Enjoy!