The parks ground floor is made up of lush valleys forests and river ways. Sierra nevada national park is spain s largest national park covering an area of over 85 000 hectares.
There are five autonomous communities that have no national parks.
National parks in spain. Ordesa y monte perdido aragon nudging the french border is spain s joint oldest national park created in 1918 with picos de europa see below but also one of the least well known. Ten in the iberian peninsula four in the canary islands and one in the balearic islands twelve of the seventeen autonomous communities of spain have national parks. 3 picos de europa national park.
Despite its proximity to cities such as santander and gijón the park is isolated enough to harbour tiny enclaves of cantabrian brown bears and iberian wolves and is at its quietest in winter. The first of spain s 16 national parks to be established in 1918 picos de europa captures a mishmash of glaciated peaks and alpine meadows in northern spain spread over a trio of mountain massifs. All were so designated because they are considered of national interest containing some of spain s principal natural systems and an ecological heritage representative of the whole country.
Located within the aragonese pyrenees ordesa y monte perdido national park is one of the world s first national parks designated in 1918. Picos de europa is one of the first national parks in spain. Sierra nevada national park is spain s largest national park and home to some of europe s biggest mountains.
See reviews and photos of national parks in spain europe on tripadvisor. In case you didn t know laurel forests were abundant a few million years ago but today they have almost vanished. Located between the provinces of asturias leon and cantabria in the pyrenees.
Top spain national parks. Spanning over 4 000 hectares the garajonay national park is one of those national parks in spain that you should never even imagine of not visiting. Mainland spain contains 11 of the country s 16 national parks with the additional five being one in mallorca and four in the canary islands.
As such one of the most appealing aspects of this national park is its incredible natural diversity. Sierra nevada national park includes the southernmost ski resort in europe. It covers an area of more than 650 kilometers squared.
Canary islands has the most four followed by andalusia three castile la mancha and castile and león two each. This spanish national park is home to laurel forests which cover 70 of the park. Here we look at national parks in spain and how they relate to the country s natural parks.
This park is an iconic landmark in spain thanks to its wide variety of flora and fauna cascading waterfalls glacial lakes and mountainous peaks. There are sixteen national parks in spain. The park represents a mountainous region with some of the highest peaks in the country as well as other natural landscapes historically carved out by glaciers.
