Welcome
Welcome to the Virtual Tour of the Sedella Visitor Centre, located in the setting of the Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama Natural Park, in the town of Sedella (province of Málaga). This Natural Space extends across the province of Granada. Here, you will be able to discover the assets of Guadiamar within the framework of the Network of Protected Natural Areas of Andalusia (RENPA).
In this centre, the visitor can find a central space where the reception and the Natural Space shop converge, where they will be attended to and where they will have the chance to buy a product or two related to the environment, and also an area with information about the Network of Protected Natural Areas of Andalusia (RENPA). The building also has a meeting, exhibition and events room, where an audiovisual on the merits of the Natural Space is also screened.
After the reception we find ourselves before a large interactive model and a window-viewpoint, which allows the visitor to discover some details about the living beings of the natural space in a journey through the different landscapes, from the lowlands to the wild summits permanently enveloped in wind.
In these links you can find more information about this Protected Natural Area with downloadable material such as trails, opening hours, how to get there, map with all the facilities for public use, etc.
Sedella Visitor Center: lajunta.es/3p0h0
Natural Park Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama: lajunta.es/3sq8e
Complete your visit with ecotourism experiences with local companies. You can consult the offer in the following link: ecoturismoandaluz.com
For activities aimed at the educational community, associations of people with functional diversity and local population, you can access through the link: reservatuvisita.ecoturismoandaluz.com
A landscape of contrasts
The Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama Natural Park is a diverse world that will surprise all the senses. Majestic mountains and enclosed valleys; gentle streams and fast torrents; cold on the summits as opposed to the heat of the coast; aridity of rocks, minerals and soils: wide pastures and inaccessible forests, unique plants, that do not grow anywhere else in the world...
Owners of the night
Water and time have been dissolving and piercing the limestone rock, giving rise to impressive caves such as the one at Nerja or very deep galleries and chasms, like the one at Maroma.
In this fascinating underground world some very peculiar insects or very rare mammals find their shelter, like the greater horseshoe bat and the greater mouse-eared bat.
The vegetation of the Nature Reserve
Life by the water
The abundant water courses that cross the Park often create genuine plant tunnels known as gallery or riverside forests. In addition to poplars, the different species of willows that fill the autumn stand out. Many animals live in the shelter of the rivers and streams.
A world filled with aromas
In areas of Mediterranean influence with a marked summer drought, patches of scrub abound. These include rosemary, thyme, retamal, Armeria velutina, Cistus albidus, bojar... these spaces are home to a variety of small creatures, especially insects, birds and reptiles.
The original forests
Originally, most of the forests that comprise what today is the Natural Park, were formed of trees from the oak family (Pyrenean oak, gall oak and holm oak) and pine groves with juniper and ephedra. Many of these forests were reforested with pine trees, which today occupy a large part of this protected space. Both in these forests, as in other more open spaces, an important hunting activity is developed centred on small game. The most significant species are rabbit, partridge, pigeon and thrush.
A tree surrounded by magic
The tejo (yew tree), which gives its name to the Sierra Tejeda, is a typical tree from the northern latitudes. The Park is one of the southernmost points in Europe where it still exists. Some 300 natural specimens are conserved, distributed over several enclaves and always above 1,500 metres high. It is a genuine survivor of the time of the glacial period: when the glaciers melted, the snow remained in the mountains like islands of freshness. It usually lives mixed with other trees, without forming forests. In the Park these are usually whitebeam, maple, gall oak and pine trees.
The battle against the wind
At the highest points of these mountains, an entire community of small plants grows taking advantage of the cracks to incubate their roots. Many of them correspond to so-called endemisms, unique species that live only in very specific areas. Also in the high areas, plants like the juniper, and the creeping juniper battle the wind in their attempt to move away from the ground, giving rise to authentic natural bonsais. Both shrubs share their territory with different species of pine.
Forests managed by man
The pine forest is the most common landscape of the Natural Park and includes species as diverse as the aleppo pine, the wild pine, the stone pine, the Austrian pine and the black pine. Although the most abundant species is the aleppo pine, the black pine, or maritime pine, deserves a special mention as a result of the importance it had in the Park by obtaining its resin. The traditional exploitation of pine trees in this Park has been the extraction of resin. In Arenas del Rey, in the province of Granada, there existed for much of the 20th century a factory for the distillation of this substance, La Resinera, where today there is an information point.
The fauna of the Nature Reserve
Large raptors build their nests up high or circle the sky in search of sustenance to feed their offspring. The mountain goat, without doubt the most emblematic animal of the Park and which has in these mountains an important hunting value and an unquestionable economic significance. That is why the figure of protection established long ago for their territories was that of Game Reserve.
Humankind in the park
The lands that today occupies the Natural Park have been inhabited by human beings since the Stone Age. In them they have found the shelter and food that permitted conditions of tough survival. Numerous civilisations have left their mark for posterity in the form of an important cultural legacy that is displayed in a thousand different ways, from civil and military architecture to gastronomy.
The small villages which rise from the slopes of the mountains to the coast, both in Granada and Málaga, have retained their popular architecture, a living reminder of almost eight hundred years of Muslim presence: dazzling limestone façades and brick towers. They have always been mountains steeped in history and legends about rebellions, smuggling, poaching and resistance that circulated through the few ports that communicated both sides.