Travel Guide Parc Naturel De Saja Besaya

This area of 24,500 hectares straddles the valleys of the rivers Saja and Besaya. In reality, the nature park is only a part of the huge Saja National Reserve, which covers practically the entire western half of Cantabria from the Besaya River to the Picos de Europa. The forests of this protected area are a fine example of the Atlantic forests typical of humid Spain: oaks, beeches near the river Saja and its tributary Argoza, birches. The fauna is rich in deer, roe deer and wild boar. Brown bears pass through in the highest areas, but they do not stay there. Large meadows, the Brañas, keep the cattle in semi-freedom. It is thanks to this form of exploitation that the Tudanca cow, a native breed of Cantabria, has been preserved. The Saja is a river where trout are caught. It is said that all you have to do is say the angler's prayer: " God, grant me a fish so big that I don't have to lie ". Following the course of the river Saja in the Buerniga valley, a whole population with their herds went to repopulate Castile. They received the name of Foramontaños (out of the mountains). In Ruente, near an old medieval bridge, is the Fuentona, a spring where a young girl is said to have turned into a fairy(anjana), as a result of an unhappy love.