The Sanabria Lake Natural Park includes 23,365 hectares in the westernmost part of the province of Zamora.
It was created by the Spanish Government in 1978, although it already had some protection since the 1940s.
The Sanabria Lake Natural Park is a vast glacial landscape where there are cirques, valleys, moraines and lakes from ancient times.
The whole area is located around the Sanabria Lake, that is the biggest lake of glacial origin in Spain. It has an extension of 318 hectares and a maximum depth of 53 metres.
The lake of Sanabria has several beaches and it is the main tourist attraction of the area since bathing is allowed. The main river basin of the area is that of the Tera river. It forms on its route a narrow gorge of a great landscape value that goes to other points of interest such as the waterfall of the Ninfas or the cave of San Martín.
Among its cultural values, it is worth to mention the Romanesque monastery of Santa María and the beautiful Medieval city centre of Puebla de Sanabria, located 12 km far from the park.
Vegetation and fauna
The oak tree is the plant species predominant in the park, although there are also other species such as the ash, the willow, the chestnut tree and the holly tree. On high heights there is thicket typical of the mountain.
The water of Sanabria Lake is filled with trouts, much appreciated by fishing enthusiasts. The park has numerous specimens of otter, roe deer, wild boar, golden eagle, peregrine falcon or eagle owl. One of its most representative animal is the wolf.