Medio Ambiente

The Regional Ministry for the Environment and Town and Country Planning promotes the Network of Itineraries of Landscape Interest, which comprises almost 4,500 kilometres of routes organised into four types of paths, an initiative within the framework of the Galician Landscape Strategy 2017-2020 cib with the aim of managing, protecting and highlighting the Galician landscape under technical criteria for the use of the existing road network.

Prepared by the Instituto de Estudos do Territorio, the project includes 56 stages in the Senda dos Faros, 109 itineraries with natural values, 76 paths of heritage interest and 25 routes with panoramic value. All of them appear in a geographical viewer, which is available for consultation and download through the geographic information portal of the Xunta de Galicia. Also included is a detailed sheet for each route, with data on the starting and finishing points of the route, average length and slope, map, topographical profile, elements of interest and a description of their natural, cultural and/or aesthetic values.

In the case of the Lighthouse Path, the Galicia Coastal Development Plan was taken into account with the aim of tracing a route in which the elements necessary for marine navigation were taken into account, so that not only the lighthouses were identified, but also towers, markers, geographical elements and other constructions. It is an original route of 1,315 km divided into 56 stages, three of which are insular.

Itineraries with natural, heritage and panoramic values
This network brings together the three types of itineraries that reflect the landscape values of the Catalogue of Galician Landscapes: natural or ecological, cultural or heritage and aesthetic and panoramic.

Thus, among the first ones, more than 130 itineraries stand out, totaling 1,400 km -not counting those that coincide within the Lighthouses Path group- and in order to identify them, we took into account the existence of Areas of Special Landscape Interest, areas of special protection of natural values, trees and unique formations, recreational areas, places of geological interest and viewpoints. The second are the itineraries associated with cultural or heritage values, which constitute a total of 76 itineraries along 707 km, of which 292 km (38 itineraries) are linked to elements declared of Cultural Interest, and another 415 km (38 itineraries) with a high density of cultural heritage assets.

Finally, more than 1,000 km of the routes identified by Turismo de Galicia in the publication Escenarios al volante are also defined. 25 unusual routes through the best landscapes, which are directly related to the aesthetic and panoramic values defined in the Catalogue of landscapes. The difference between the two types of itineraries above is that these routes run on the roads and can be covered by car.