Monte Santiago

With a 300 metre drop, the Nervión waterfall is a natural sight which is worth visiting, above all in winter and spring.

What is a Protected Area?

It is a rural area with special natural values which must be preserved through sustainable development models. This way participation (involving the population) seeks to improve the quality of life of the area's inhabitants but preserving traditional uses and ensuring natural resources for future generations.

What is a Natural monument?

It is a protective figure for areas with geological formations, paleological sites etc, which are unique through their scientific, cultural or scenic values.

Why is Monte Santiago protected?

  • For the spectacular landscape to the north of the area, with the impressive gorges of the Sierra Salvada.
  • For its peculiar stepped landform, unparalleled throughout Europe .
  • For the Karstic formations, which include a wide network of passes, chasms, swallow-holes, sink holes and upwellings etc, of great value.
  • To protect the Monte Santiago, an example of southern Cantabrian beech forest.
  • For its unique fauna, with the gorge-dwelling birds or cave-dwelling fauna.
  • For the neolithic and medieval archeological remains making up the area.

The towns

Berberana (formerly Berbesana) and Villalba de Losa are the area's most significant centres, and part of their areas includes the Natural Protected Area. They are traditionally, livestock raising towns, as Madoz recorded in his 1845 dictionary: sheep, goats, cattle, horse and sows; its industry, the pack animal business,... and trade in livestock exports and the import of grain, wine and items of clothing.
They still retain a good display of their popular architecture, particularly the Earl of Berberana's tower in the town of the same name.
Other centres of interest are Murita, Mijala and Zaballa .

A landscaped formed on limestone

The dissolution of this block of limestone from the Cretaceous Era throughout millions of centuries has shaped the landscape we see today. The river Nervión has been "eating away" land at the outcrops and forming a narrow valley, and the rainwater has been filtering through the wood's surface cracks to create chasms, passes and subterranean rivers, some of which open up to the outside through the vertical wall.


Beeches, holm-oaks and pines

Although the beech forest (the forest in Spain's wet region) is the most known in the area, holm-oaks, a species typical of dry areas, are dominant close to Berberana. We also find good antique pine groves

Vultures and salamanders

An area as diminished as Monte Santiago offers a great diversity of habitats: rocks, forests, caverns or ponds. It is for this reason that we will be able to find many of the Iberian amphibians amongst the fallen leaves, unknown invertebrates in their chasms or a great variety of thicket animals: badgers, wild boar, blue nuthatchers, tawny owls... It is all a question of patience, silence and attention.

The loberas

The loberas were pits built with stone walls in which the beaters cornered and killed the wolves. The wolves were hurled into the open from the old pit. There are two more loberas in higher Ramalejo

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