The Royal, Cervantine or Las Ventas Way

Visited by royalty, enjoyed by illustrious travellers and the first Renaissance tourists, this road was used to travel from the court, from the two Castilian plateaus, to the Guadalquivir valley, and who filled the inns and hostelries with life all along the massif of the Sierra Morena (this gave rise to the nickname "Way of the Inns or Las Ventas"). In the opposite direction, the transport of wealth from the Indies, from Seville to the court, made this road a strategic communications hub between the north and south of the Iberian Peninsula. This was the route taken by most of those who travelled from the Castilian court to lower Andalusia (Córdoba, Seville and Cádiz), or to Málaga along the Carpio Way. 

It had already been the main road axis during the Al-Andalus period, so, not in vain the path is also nicknamed 'de la Plata', which derives from the Arabic term "al balat", whose translation is cobbled road. Because it was used so extensively, much of the action in the works by authors of Spain's "Siglo de Oro" (Golden Age) took place along this route. Rogues, kings, knights and ladies, lovers, bandits, clergymen and endless characters played leading roles in the action created in some of the greatest literary works from this era. The passage through Sierra Morena was praised for its beauty but feared for its dangers. This route was the setting for many of the adventures and misadventures of Don Quixote. First, there was the scene of Don Quixote returning to his village, from the place of his penance, and, later, from the "Venta del Molinillo" after fighting against the windmills. It is for all these reasons that some authors propose calling it the "Cervantino" Way. 

Climbing up from the plain of Córdoba to La Mancha and the Alcudia valley over the passes in the Sierra Morena, enjoying landscapes of enormous contrasts, discovering this heritage first-hand or imagining that how much you suffer from the dust rising from the trail, being tricked by rogues or the assaulted by highwaymen and bandits, these are the legends of an ancient way that is over a thousand years old.