Cabañeros National Park is located in Montes de Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, northwest of the province of Ciudad Real and southwest of Toledo, and it was established in 1995 to protect a representative sample of the best preserved Spanish Mediterranean forests. Its landscape presents great contrasts and is structured into two big units, which very representative for the Montes de Toledo area: the highland ("la raña") is a great plain of approximately 8,000 hectares located in the southeast of the park, whereas the mountains ("las sierras") occupy most of the park's surface, and their height ranges between 650 and 1448 metres. They are covered with forests and scrubland, with sparse bare stony surfaces: the most widespread forests are holm oak groves, cork oak groves, Mirbeck’s oaks and Pyrenean oaks; scrublands are often composed by dwarf-shrub.
Cabañeros National Park takes its name from the huts traditionally used by shepherds and charcoal burners of Montes de Toledo as a temporary shelter for their work in the fields. It deals with cabins with cone-shaped ceiling, built using plants from the surroundings.
