El Geoparque
The Granada Geopark, which was declared a World Geopark by UNESCO in 2020, has an area of 4,722km2 that includes 47 municipalities in the regions of Guadix, Baza, Huéscar and Montes. It covers a territory of contrasts in the central sector of the Betic Mountains and includes some of the highest peaks on the peninsula, including the Sierra de la Sagra or Sierra Nevada.
It is an inhospitable landscape of great beauty that holds a unique geological heritage on the European continent and that will not leave indifferent the visitor who ventures to discover it. Here you can find more useful information, maps and guides of the territory. If you are interested in getting to know this unique territory, we recommend that you take a look at the following manual of good practices for visitors.
Fuencaliente
The Fuencaliente spring is a thermal spring with 6,000 m2, it is the centre of a recreational-sports complex of more than 20,000 m2, which has parking, avenues, a lawn area, sports facilities, large terraces and restaurant service. It is located 2 km from Huéscar in the direction of Puebla de Don Fadrique.
The complex is built around a natural water source converted into a swimming pool. The slightly thermal character (19 ºC) of its waters is due to the circulation of this through fractures and faults so common on this edge of the basin. They are waters of medium mineralisation and sulphated bicarbonate calcium-magnesium. Its flow is up to 500 litres per second.
Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor
Declared a Site of Cultural Interest on February 8, 1973, it is the most emblematic monument of the city in which Gothic, Baroque and Plateresque styles are mixed. An omnipotent temple due to its cathedral-like dimensions in Gothic-Renaissance style from the beginning of the 16th century. Declared a National Monument, it was built in the 16th century conceived as an authentic cathedral. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named the Church of Santa María la Mayor in Huéscar a Perpetual Jubilee Temple, like the Papal Basilica of Santa María La Mayor in Rome. It thus becomes the first temple of the Diocese of Guadix with affiliation to a Pontifical basilica.
Its Corinthian columns stand out, as does the choir stalls, which bear a resemblance to the Cathedral of Toledo, to whose Diocese it belonged.
Rodríguez Penalva Municipal Park
The Rodríguez Penalva Municipal Park is a recreational space where we can relax and enjoy a pleasant walk. There is an area where the swings are located so that the little ones can enjoy themselves. Apart from the swings, it has sports equipment where adults do gymnastic activities. It is a space widely used for summer walks and for sports throughout the year.
It also has a dovecote, undoubtedly a calm and enjoyable walk for the visitor.
Penalva Palace House
This beautiful modernist house located on the Paseo del Santo Cristo, built at the beginning of the century, in 1915, is a peculiar and tremendously unique work in these parts. It is a valuable example of Andalusian modernism, dedicated to the purest and most refined Catalan style, in which the influence of Gaudí is clear and evident in its exquisite organic-vegetable decoration, characteristic of the ornate taste of Catalan architecture of the time.
Distributed on three levels, it houses different architectural styles among its rooms: Modernist façade in Gaudian style. Central patio, main staircase and upper corridor, in Arabic style, imitating plasterwork, plinths and appliqués, with a staircase and central fountain in white marble.
Theatre of Huéscar
The theatre building is located in the church of the former Convent of Santo Domingo, declared a Site of Cultural Interest. The building has one of the most important jewels of Huéscar. It is its Mudejar coffered ceiling that covers the current stalls. This was built in the mid-16th century and has been preserved as it was originally.
In 2004, the rehabilitation of this space began to adapt it to the new needs of the population and the new concept of theatre.
It is a place to meet and enjoy not only shows, but also to rest and relax in a very charming place that is more than four hundred years old.
Las Secuoyas “giant trees”
The sequoias or Sequoiadendron giganteum, are large trees planted at the beginning of the 19th century in the Cortijo de La Losa in Huéscar, which are up to 70 metres tall and have a perimeter of more than 7 metres.
Also known as mariantonias, this species of tree that can live for more than a thousand years and exceed a hundred metres in height comes from California in the United States. They were brought by the Duke of Wellington, which is why they were initially known as wellingtonas and then as mariantonias. There are two other trees of this species in the gardens of La Granja in Segovia known as the King and the Queen. Another is in the Pazo do Casal de Bergondo in A Coruña, the sequoia forest declared a Natural Monument of the Sequoias of Monte Cabezón, in Cantabria.
La Sagra Mountain Range
The Sierra de la Sagra, with its 2,381 metres, the highest point of the Subbética mountain range and the Granada plateau, is located between the municipalities of Huéscar and Puebla de Don Fadrique.
Their condition as limestone mountain ranges makes them stand out as a karstic landscape, characterised by remains of holm oak forests, pine forests with rugged slopes, unique juniper forests, post-glacial flora of great interest, and a fauna shared with the Sierra de Castril, with many interesting invertebrates, among which butterflies and beetles stand out.
It is a place of worship par excellence for hikers and/or nature lovers, to whom it gives beauty, emotions and sensations in equal proportion.
