Meadow of Light. /
The Extremadura Environmental Advisory Council has declared the ‘Dehesa de la Luz’ a Peri-urban Park for Conservation and Leisure, for meeting the criteria to be declared a Peri-urban Park for Conservation and Leisure due to its proximity to the urban core, presence of values and the possibility of developing socio-recreational activities.
The Dehesa de la Luz, the first cultural dehesa in Europe, is a dreamlike natural environment with a thousand-year-old history where you can enjoy nature tourism, a sustainable tourism with more than 900 hectares of holm oaks and cork oaks, home to a great diversity of wild flora and fauna where they coexist in total harmony with domestic species in danger of extinction, in an environment surrounded by millenary ruins, dolmens, remains of a stone oil press, anthropomorphic tombs belonging to the Roman and Visigoth period, and the ancient huts of those who dedicated themselves body and soul to the care of their cattle.
It is a space that hosts numerous activities and events throughout the year such as sports events of different kinds, mountain bike rides, horseback riding, solidarity marches, night routes, historical routes, astronomical, environmental activities, pilgrimages, religious acts…
It is a dehesa with a lot of life where every day streams and visitors walk and practice different sports along its trails and paths, entering the heart of this unique sustainable ecosystem following the signs of the different routes that take them to the past and present of our history, pilgrimage along the Vía Jacobea de la Estrella, and admiring exemplary farms such as the black merino sheep, the white cow from Cáceres or the Breton horse, or finding spirituality and inner peace in the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Luz, where the hermitage built between the 17th and 18th centuries in the Baroque style, stones from a temple that tell legends, such as that of Count Pelagio and the Pozo de las Matanzas, and past stories, and which houses the image of the Patron Saint, Our Lady de la Luz, the patron saint of an entire people who venerate her with faith and passion.
In addition, it is a very attractive environment for photography lovers who capture with their cameras all the beauty and life of the meadow, where horsemen and Amazons gallop in the middle of the pure air feeling the sensation of freedom and merging with nature, in the meadow of horses, many of them preparing for the Festival of Tourist Interest in Extremadura, the Day of Light.
A place where you can also savor the rich cuisine of Arroyo, such as black pudding, cabbage with crop, Torta de la Luz, tench or a good wine, sitting in the picnic areas in the shade of centuries-old trees and enjoying family and friends. listening to the relaxing sound of the water of its 22 ponds, full of life contemplating the beauty of a wide variety of aquatic fauna, birds of prey and storks.
An environment where you can fall in love with the spectacular sunsets with the Sierra de San Pedro in the background and observe at night one of the best and highest quality starry skies in Europe, free of pollution and brilliant in which to contemplate the stars, planets and the milky way, since the Interpretation Center houses a Celestial Viewpoint, belonging to the network of Celestial Viewpoints of Extremadura and an astronomical observatory connected to the one on Teide, as well as an audiovisual room, presentation room, Day of Light room with virtual reality, a planning room and a room dedicated to pottery from Arroyo.
The ‘Dehesa de la Luz’ is declared a Periurban Conservation and Leisure Park