Vía de la Plata Nature Trail
Description
This Nature Trail recovers the route of the old Palazuelo-Astorga railway line, brought into service across its full length (347.5 km) in July 1896 (although other sections were inaugurated previously) and closed on 1 January 1985 along the Plasencia-Astorga section (330.8 km).
Select a section:
Navalmoral de Béjar to Alba de Tormes stage. Coming soon
Carbajosa de la Sagrada to Alba de Tormes stage
Barcial del Barco to Maire de Castroponce stage
Today, only a 16.7 km stretch of the railway is still in service, connecting the old station at Palazuelo (called Monfragüe since May 1990) on the Madrid-Cáceres line, with the station in Plasencia. When it was in operation, this railway saw trains connecting Gijón and Seville (918 km) stopping at Mérida, Cáceres, Plasencia, Salamanca, Zamora, Astorga and León.
On all the itineraries for the route we can find remains of the old railway: station buildings (some recovered for rural tourism), stops or rail workers' lodgings, traffic lights, water deposits and switches as well as some impressive bridges such as the one over the river Esla along the Zamora section.
The Vía de la Plata Nature Trail or “Silver Route” takes its name from the popular name (of unknown origin given that there were never any silver mines nearby) given to the old Roman road of Iter ab Emerita Asturicam (meaning the road from Mérida to Astorga), which connected two significant Hispano-Roman settlements: namely Augusta Emerita (now Mérida) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga). Even though this road was used in pre-Roman times, its importance is evident on the Nature Trail, along which there are a number of Roman remains to be found. The “Vía de la Plata”, which crosses the Nature Trail a number of times, with the two even coinciding at a number of points, has been popular ever since the late 20th century as a cultural route and is currently one of the alternatives to the Camino de Santiago.
Today, the following sections have been brought into service:
-Casas del Monte to Hervás, in Cáceres
-Baños de Montemayor to Béjar, between Cáceres and Salamanca
-Alba de Tormes to Carbajasa de la Sagrada, in Salamanca
-Barcial del Barco to Maire de Castroponce, in Zamora
By using the old railway route at all times, the routes that make up this Nature Trail are easily negotiated by bicycle, with a good surface and no major undulations.
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