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For thousands of years there have been routes between the mountains, valleys and plains, which unite the north and south of Spain, where, in the lower basin of the Guadalquivir, the first great western culture flourished, under the mythical monarchy of Tartessos at the end of the Bronze Age. When the Romans invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC, they gave great importance to roads to cover the whole territory, with the Vía de la Plata, a road which links Gijón with Seville via Astorga, León, Salamanca and Mérida, being one of the most important.

Today, the The Vía de la Plata is one of the most popular hiking routes in Spain because of its exceptional historical and artistic legacy and because of the art and civilization which were created along its length, with the building of cities, circuses, temples, aqueducts, bridges, arches and fortresses. That’s not forgetting the development of rich traditional architecture, folklore, handicrafts, etc.

The route begins in Seville, the ancient city of Hispalis. From there, passing through the ruins of Itálica, ancient city of Roman Baetica, the route takes us through Zafra and Almendralejo to Mérida, the so-called Hispanic Rome. It continues its course to Cáceres and Plasencia. Now in the lands of Castile, the route moves inwards to Béjar and Salamanca. Still heading north, we arrive at Zamora and, through fields of cereals and lakes, to Benavente and on to Astorga and León. Campomanes and Pola de Lena are the first landmarks in Asturias which will take us on towards Oviedo and Gijón, the end point of its long journey.

For more info on walking the route, check: http://www.interam.com/viaplata/indexeng.htm

This entry was posted on Friday, November 24th, 2006 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Elsewhere. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.