The Sierra de Francia is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

located in Sierra de Francia Comarca at the southern end of Salamanca Province,

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is located about 70 km from

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

city. The region is sparsely inhabited and its few towns have great cultural value. Most of the Sierra de Francia's territory, together with the valley of Las Batuecas was declared Las Batuecas-Sierra de Francia Natural Park in 1978. Together with neighboring Sierra de Béjar it constitutes a Biosphere Reserve. Some of the towns of the comarca have been officially declared Conjunto Histórico-Artístico owing to their cultural and architectural value.Web de Turismo de la Junta de Castilla y León

Geography

The Sierra de Francia is one of the mountain ranges belonging to the Sistema Central. Its forested mountain slopes (

alder Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...

, oak,

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

and ash) rise over the Northern Castilian Plateau, marking the geographical limit of its southwestern plains (''Llanura Salmantina''). From its southern side this mountain chain marks the northern limit of Las Hurdes, the

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

n comarca. The Sierra de Francia consists of a quite regular succession of peaks of moderate height, of which the Pico de La Hastiala (1.735 m) is the highest. At the top of the Peña de Francia (1723 m) stands one of the highest

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

shrines of the world, as well as a RTVE antenna. Other summits worth mentioning are the

Mesa del Francés A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep Escarpment, escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft Sedimentary rock, sedimentary rocks, ...

(1.638 m) and the Pico Robledo (1.614 m). All these peaks are usually covered with snow in the winter season. Among the rivers that cut valleys in the sierra, the most famous is the Río Francia, which gives the mountain chain its name, as well as the Alagón.

References

External links

Diputación de Salamanca - Turismo - Sierra de Francia.

Web de Turismo de la Junta de Castilla y León.

{{Authority control

Francia The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom, or just Francia, was the largest History of the Roman Empire, post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks, Frankish Merovingian dynasty, Merovingi ...

Biosphere reserves of Spain

Geography of the Province of Salamanca Natural parks of Spain Protected areas established in 1978 Protected areas of Castile and León