Cordoba Green Routes to walk with your dog
Thanks to the Green Routes, mining has resulted in itself a cultural heritage that can be explored. An excellent healthy opportunity to go hiking with our dog, that allows us to explore the province more closely.
Active tourism in Andalusia is full of proposals that promote sustainable tourism, and the Green Routes are paradigmatic in this sense, as they recover reconditioned railway lines to discover them from a different perspective, by foot along the tracks. The mining-industrial landscapes in the province of Cordoba take us back to the mining past that is, in itself, a priceless heritage for study. Let's discover some routes which, in addition to helping you practise healthy exercise, enable you to discover the extent to which this well-lubricated industry has pieced together these towns and their respective residents. Furthermore, accompanied by your pet!
La Maquinilla Rail Trail
A curious and certainly enigmatic name for a section that means discovering one of our country's most important industrial assets. Mining in Sierra Morena, in the region of the Guadiato Valley, developed along banks of the river that baptizes the region. Mining generated its own culture that linked these villages.
Belmez and Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo, the start and end of this Green Route - of 8 kilometres- were two of the main towns of the Alto Guadiato mining system. It was the railway, of course, which connected these points for commercialising the mineral and its derivative products. The legacy can be seen in the industrial site, as well as in the architecture of French colonial style in Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo, in the Belmez Castle and its neighbourhood of railway workers, as well as in the supports used by miners of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
The appeal of this route is, as usually occurs with these proposals, double: in ethnographic terms, it allows for discovering the life and customs of these regions during the industrial era. Yet, the natural environment is equally interesting, as the Alto Guadiato Valley is a designated Special Bird Protection Area (ZEPA). Your dogs will feel quite comfortable breathing this fresh air in the company of the family.
Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo Green Route
This Green Route is part of the French quarter of Pueblonuevo. The building of the old Metallurgical Mining Society of Peñarroya, the old Mining Hospital, the French school, the Flour Factory and narrow gauge Pueblonuevo del Terrible railway line, comprise a fascinating old image, when mining was the basis for a significant part of the population. The route is a little over 3 kilometres and is paved.
Minería Green Route
The old Peñarroya-Puertollano railway that crosses the towns of Villanueva del Duque and Hinojosa del Duque, in Cordoba, is the raison d'être of this Green Route of 14.6 kilometres, suitable for biking or walking with your dog. What can be seen here? The old mining complexes of El Soldado or Las Morras del Cuzna, or the religious patrimony of Hinojosa del Duque, which even has a National Monument (the San Juan Bautista Church), an Ethnological Museum and the Mozarab Road to Santiago.
The old El Soldado train station, from which the route begins, has been restored as a rural accommodation. Likewise, there is a rest area beside the ruins of the Pena Blancas train station, a perfect place to take a break and regain your strength while enjoying the landscape. Enough drink and something to eat suffices to resume the route. And remember, pets also need to rest!
Fuente Obejuna Green Route
This Green Route is in the town of the same name and starts a kilometre and a half after the start of the Fuente Obejuna-Los Blázquez Road. It is quite short, with a length of just 4.5 kilometres. You will be surrounded by oaks…, cork trees and gall-oaks, and an undergrowth of buckthorn, honeysuckle, broom… In terms of flora, the beauty of the landscape has a more southern feel, in addition to the wealth of both autochthonous and aromatic plants.
