Via de la Plata Route Attractions & Activities - The Best Holiday Destinations for 2020
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This article is an itinerary.
The Vía de la Plata route is based along an old communication axis of the Spanish West. In Roman times, and especially during the reigns of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, a grand access route was created in the west of the peninsula that linked the Cantabrian coast with the lands of the south of Hispania. Goods, troops, traders and travellers moved in continuous transit along this trail, which favoured the spreading of Roman culture, its language and way of life, at the same time as facilitating the control of the territory that the administration of the Roman Empire required.
This trail continued to be used over the centuries, both by Arabs as well as Christians during the Middle Ages, and went on to play an important role in the communications network of the Iberian Peninsula.
Today, it is a magnificent and varied route which has a cultural and tourist potential of the first order in the Iberian Peninsule and the European Union.
The route goes across 4 regions and 7 provinces on a North-South axis of about 800 Km and more than 120.000 square kms.
The open multithematic character of the route that allows different historical, cultural and ethnographical interpretations, increases its attraction. A large tourist circuit capable of bringing together around the axis of towns with an important historical heritage, all the excellent natural resources and different local cultures present in the territory.
The Cooperation Network of Towns on the Ruta de la Plata, an association created in 1997 to promote this important cultural route, currently boasts twenty-seven member municipalities (Gijón, Ribera de Arriba, Morcín Riosa, Mieres, Aller, Lena, La Pola de Gordón, León, La Bañeza, Benavente, Zamora, Salamanca, Béjar, Baños de Montemayor, Hervás, Carcaboso, Plasencia, Casar de Cáceres, Cáceres, Mérida, Zafra, Calzadilla de los Barros, Fuente de Cantos, Monesterio, Santiponce, Carmona and Sevilla) In close collaboration with TURESPAÑA and the Autonomous Communities of Asturias, Castile-León, Extremadura and Andalusia, it is responsible for coordinating all kinds of promotional activities.
Heritage of Mankind cities, coastal routes, towns and cities boasting a cultural heritage alongside other cultural resources, rivers, reservoirs and wetlands, significant nature areas and landscapes (two National Parks and several Nature Parks) and sites of special ethnographic importance, in addition to an infinite array of complementary and alternative itineraries and routes.
Vía de la Plata Route Website
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Via de la Plata Route