Portal de Turismo de Castilla y León

Welcome to the Sanabria Lake Natural Park House. As with the other park houses located all over the region of Castile and Leon, this is the recommended gateway to these natural areas. The staff in the Park House will tell you about the Natural Park and help you plan your visit.

The Sanabria Lake Natural Park is located in the north-western corner of the province of Zamora. It was created in 1978 with the main objective of preserving the landscape that had been sculpted in its rocks by Quaternary glaciers, the purity of the waters, the richness of its flora and the diversity of its fauna, which is very rich in amphibian species. Its current area is 32,302 hectares, most of which are medium and high mountain areas in the Segundera and Cabrera mountain ranges.

The staff in the Park House will tell you about the Natural Park and help you plan your visit.

Enter the building.

As soon as you enter, you will find yourself directly at the reception, where the staff of the Park House will assist you at the counter if necessary.

You will find the green store, where you can buy typical products from the region and a souvenir of your visit, to the right.

On the floor you will find some green footprints that mark the path to follow during your visit.

Begin your visit by following the corridor to the left of the reception desk.

You will find a model of the Natural Park on the left.

Do you know why Sanabria is protected?

Sanabria is a unique place around a glacial lake, the largest in the Iberian Peninsula, and the most important lagoon complex in Spain outside the Pyrenees. As well as flora rich in endemic species adapted to the extreme conditions of this environment, as well as its fauna, which is particularly diverse in amphibians, including emblematic species such as the otter and the unusual river mussel known as the "naiad", Sanabria is a natural area with special assets that must be preserved for future generations.

But Sanabria is much more than a lake. The ancestral culture of its peoples, as well as the interesting legacy of traditions and popular architecture adapted to the region, convey a cultural identity that has been maintained to the present day.

The exhibition is divided into five thematic rooms: forest ecosystem, aquatic environment, high mountain area, geology and glaciers and ethnography.

The forest ecosystem makes up the first part of the exhibition.

The explanatory panels on the left wall of this room show the characteristics and features of Sanabria's forest.

As you enter the forest in the Natural Park, you are sure to find yourself surrounded by oak trees (Quercus pyrenaica). This species is very well adapted to the harsh climate in the Park, where the cold and heat can be extreme. Its ability to sprout after a fire or felling and its usefulness as firewood, wood for construction and food for livestock are the key factors in its predominance in the Natural Park.

Large oak groves grow along roadsides, trails and near roads.

Their young shoots were used to make firewood to heat houses. It is still used for firewood today, although it has been replaced by a type of renewable fuel called biomass, which uses shredded, convenient and environmentally friendly wood to power a high-tech system, like the one at the Park House.

The predominance of oak trees does not prevent less abundant but very attractive species of trees growing in some areas, due to the diversity they provide. These are more humid areas in some cases, with trees typical of cool and rainy regions, such as the yew, birch and chestnut, among others.

The forest's diversity is enriched by the fauna that finds refuge and food in the forest. The vegetation cover creates a microclimate that is a very good environment for life: the high temperatures of summer are milder inside the forest, and the air is more humid than in the direct sunlight. On the other hand, trees provide some shelter from the cold and wind in winter.

Even after they are dead, trees are useful to wildlife, as they provide shelter in the hollows of their old trunks. Many small animals often settle in the branches. They include dormice, which are vulnerable to attacks from pine martens and other predators that can climb up easily. Others, such as roe deer, take refuge in bushes and plant litter, while the badger and the natterjack toad find the ideal conditions to build their homes in the ground.

A white hexagonal display case holds various leaves, branches and galls from three types of oak trees that are related to each other but adapted to different habitats: the holm oak, the pedunculate oak, and the European honey oak share the first word of their scientific names, Quercus, but live in very different climatic areas.

Near the hexagon you can find a reproduction of various burrows in glass cabinets showing life under the forest floor, where badgers, ants and toads live for some of their lives.

The hexagon is the motif for the Park House's exhibitions and decorations. Hexagons are common in nature: the shell of a turtle, the morphology of a spider's web, a wasp's nest, a bee's honeycomb or a snowflake. The display modules all through the exhibition are hexagonal.

On the right of the first room is an explanation of the water environment. It includes various explanatory panels with images accompanied by text, a board game adapted to this theme and an interactive display, which immerses you in the depths of the lake to learn about all the inhabitants that live in its waters.

One of the most interesting explanations concerns the life of the naiads or freshwater river mussels, and in Sanabria they are specifically the Margaritifera margaritifera, which is in danger of extinction. These living things play a crucial filtering role, helping to purify the water. Each adult naiad can filter 50 litres of water per day, helping preserve aquatic ecosystems.

Riparian vegetation, which grows along river banks, plays a vital role in the health of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. It plays a crucial key ecological role by preventing soil erosion, filtering pollutants, providing biodiversity-rich habitats, and acting as an essential interface between the terrestrial and aquatic environments. This riparian vegetation includes birch, ash and alder trees.

Another species that inhabits the upper reaches of the rivers of Sanabria is the desman. It is a small mammal about 10 cm long, with slightly webbed feet and a long tail that it uses as a rudder to swim in the water. It uses its snout, shaped like a small trunk, to dig in the riverbed in search of food. This species is currently in danger of extinction.

Another species found here as well as the desman is the trout. It is a freshwater fish that lives in cold and clean waters, feeding on insects and crustaceans.

These two species act as bioindicators of environmental quality due to their sensitivity to factors such as air and water pollution. The population levels of these species in an area can provide valuable information about the overall health of an ecosystem.

Aquatic plants are fundamental parts of these aquatic ecosystems. These plants have adapted to grow fully or partially submerged in water, contribute to maintaining the water quality by absorbing nutrients, and act as natural filters. The otter, the emblem of the Natural Park, is a semi-aquatic mammal which has thick water-repellent fur. Otters are skilled swimmers and carnivorous hunters that mainly feed on fish, crustaceans and other aquatic animals.

Its population has declined in recent years due to the appearance in the region of an invasive species: the American mink. This ferret-like mammal reproduces at an alarming rate, and its population is increasing rapidly. This increase is causing problems for the otters and their search for food. Protection measures were adopted for this reason, and the population is currently under control.

This building also houses a limnology laboratory. Limnology is the branch of ecology that studies inland bodies of water, such as lakes, lagoons, rivers, streams, marshes and reservoirs. This discipline focuses on understanding the physical, chemical, biological and geological aspects of these aquatic environments.

Limnologists research a wide range of topics, including water quality, hydrology, aquatic ecology, biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, aquatic ecosystem dynamics, and human influence on aquatic systems. They seek knowledge that will enable aquatic resources to be managed sustainably, and these ecosystems to be preserved.

Continuing through the room, the next section of the exhibition, focusing on high mountain landscapes, is on the left.

The natural wealth of this mountain area would be enough to justify the existence of this Natural Park. Its rarity and value are as exceptional as Lake Sanabria itself. In the high mountains of Sanabria there is a group of twenty permanent glacial lakes and numerous peatlands and temporary lagoons, which in Spain are only comparable to those in the Pyrenees.

Peatlands are another of the park's great surprises. These are moist soils where decomposing plant material known as peat accumulates. You would have to travel a long way to find a peatland landscape like the one in the Natural Park.

A special type of moss, called Sphagnum, is typical of these peatlands. Its ability to store large quantities of water prevents streams from drying up in summer, and supplies water when it is needed most. However, peatlands are a very acidic environment and poor in nutrients, where only some very specialised plants are able to live there, such as the Drosera, or sundew, a carnivorous plant that compensates for the poor soil of the peatland by feeding on the insects it traps.

Beneath the panels in this part of the exhibition, covered in transparent glass, is a recreation of a peat bog with a detailed explanation of how the vegetation in the Natural Park developed.

The wildlife that lives in these remote landscapes appreciates solitude: wolves, golden and short-toed eagles, red rock thrushes, and the curious blue-breasted booby are some of the animals that live in the higher areas of the Park. A particularly interesting species is the brown partridge (Perdix perdix hispaniensis), which occupies only a few mountainous areas in the north of Spain. There is a significant population of this bird in Sanabria, which is one of the best preserved in the Iberian Peninsula.

The exhibition in this room concludes with a warning about the dangers of fire. This tool was used in Sanabria in days gone by to clear large areas and prepare them suitable for livestock farming. However, it is a very dangerous tool when an uncontrolled fire breaks out. Wildlife is also affected by fires. Nowadays, there is machinery that makes clearing large areas of land relatively quick and easy.

An interactive, rotating cylinder-shaped display shows children the characteristics and tastes that animals that live at high altitudes share.

The next room, at the end of the corridor, focuses on the geology of the region.

. A documentary is screened here about the glacial processes that have shaped the landscape over thousands of years. This documentary is in 3D.

On the wall behind the stands you will find some display cases presenting a collection of rocks and minerals from the area.

The Würm glaciation took place 100,000 years ago, and was the last of the Quaternary glaciations and a large mass of ice, a plateau glacier, settled on these mountains for a period of 90,000 years. This glacier, which covered the entire plateau with a thick mantle of ice, ran through all the valleys that descend from the massif, forming long and powerful glacier tongues. These rivers of ice carved out these valleys, turning them into deep and canyons wide cut into the hard plutonic rock. It is precisely the hardness of the rock that forms the mountains that means we can still see this splendid morphology which otherwise would have been altered by the action of subsequent erosive forces, as is the case in the other mountain systems in the Iberian Peninsula.

The main tongue of the glacier was embedded in the valley of the Tera at that time. It descended from the cirque of Trevinca and La Survia, and its thickness increased as ice was added from the small cirques and lateral valleys - some of them as beautiful as the cirque of the Lake of Lacillo, at the foot of the Moncalvo mountain.

When it reached where Ribadelago is today, this tongue was almost 15 kilometres long and more than 300 metres thick. Here, the Tera glacier was fed by the tongues from the Cárdena and Segundera glaciers, further increasing its erosive power, and carving out the basin that today houses the Sanabria Lake.

The glaciation came to an end relatively quickly approximately 12,000 years ago, and the glacial tongue retreated, revealing canyons, hanging valleys, roches moutonnées, glacial striations and the most outstanding item in the Natural Park and the entire region: Lake Sanabria.

Leave the room through the exit that you will find on the wall opposite the entrance.

This section is the memory corner, and gives you some idea of the people in the villages of the region and their lives.

Kruger was a German anthropologist who studied the ethnography of the region between 1921 and 1922 which he observed in the popular culture of Sanabria, which is shown in most of the photos on the right side of the room, which take you on a journey into the past to discover know the roots of the people in the area.

On the left in this room, covered by a black silk cloth and illuminated, you will find a text written in Sanabrian dialect that comes from the legend of Lake Sanabria. This dialect was influenced by Asturleones and Galician–Portuguese, languages that experienced their golden age during the Middle Ages.

Asturleonese was historically spoken in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula, in the regions of Asturias, Leon and Zamora, as well as in parts of Galicia and Cantabria.

Galician-Portuguese was spoken in the regions that today make up Galicia and Portugal. Over time, differences appeared in the varieties of Galician–Portuguese, and Galician and Portuguese began to emerge as clearly distinct languages in the fourteenth century. While Galician remained the language spoken in Galicia, Portuguese developed and became consolidated as the national language of Portugal.

Also on the left side are two glass display cases, which display a model of a traditional Sanabria house and another of a typical Sanabria mill.

A typical house in Sanabria was built using local materials, thick stone and mud walls, wooden beams and thatched or slate roofs. Its small windows open to the south, which shows the difficult climate which they had to adapt to. The fire inside them was always lit, for heating, cooking and lighting. This fire was fed with the wood that cost so much to cut, transport and prepare each year.

The clothes were woven with thread obtained from a herbaceous plant: flax. It was used to weave underwear and sheets, which were then worn underneath garments made from sheep's wool. Clothes made of wool from sheep are warm, soft and can maintain their temperature. This natural fibre has been prized for centuries due to its ability to retain heat efficiently, its breathability and resistance to unpleasant odours.

In the old days, life in Sanabria was very tough. Self-sufficiency, communal work, difficulties with transportation, dependence on the land, manual labour and living with livestock have been a constant feature in the lives of humans for centuries, and especially in a rural mountain area like Sanabria.

Leave the last room through the corridor and continue straight ahead to the audiovisual room.

The audiovisual documentary about the Sanabria Lake Natural Park is screened as a summary of the visit to the House.

Leave the room and turn left, walk forward and you will finally reach the reception, next to the entrance.

This audio clip concludes your visit to the Sanabria Lake Natural Park House.

You have learned a little more about this unique landscape during your tour.

If you would like more information, please contact the reception desk where the staff at the Park House will be happy to answer any queries you may have.

Thank you for your visit.