The beautiful landscapes, the castle, the hermitage and the reservoir of the Monfragüe National Park

The province of Cáceres, in the northern half of Spain's Extremadura region, is home to Monfragüe National Park.

The great cave of La Cuevona de Ribadesella, in Asturias, and its beautiful natural surroundings
Vereda de la Estrella, a beautiful Spanish mountain route in the Sierra Nevada

Monfragüe was declared a natural park in 1979. In 2003 it was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO and in 2007 it was classified as a national park. This site covers an area of ​​17,852 hectares. Here we can find beautiful viewpoints and bird observatories (among its population there are black vultures, imperial eagles, golden eagles and eagle owls, among other species), as well as a 9th-century Arab fortress, the Monfragüe Castle, currently in ruins and which was built on an ancient fortress of pre-Roman origin.

A few days ago, the YouTube channel El inquieto naturaleza, to which I recommend you subscribe, published a tour of some of the natural jewels of that national park, in addition to visiting the aforementioned castle and also the Saltos de Torrejón Reservoir, on the Tagus River, where on October 22, 1965 a terrible accident took place when the dam broke, with dozens of dead and missing (the video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

You can see some screenshots here that show just a small part of the interesting content of this video. Here we see the Keep of Monfragüe Castle, one of the two towers that remain from this ancient Moorish castle.

Next to the castle is the Hermitage of Monfragüe, possibly built in the 14th century (the exact date is unknown). This Catholic temple houses an image of the Virgin Mary dating from the 12th century and which belonged to the Order of Mountjoy, being brought from the Holy Land to this place in 1197.

Next we see the Fuente del Francés picnic area, a large space with wooden tables where you can eat in the shade, protected from the sun on hot summer days.

We conclude with the image at the top of this article: Peña Falcón, seen from the Salto del Gitano viewpoint, a rock ridge (specifically, Armorican quartzite) with a height of 513 meters. It is one of the best places in this national park to observe birds in their natural environment.