Qualla: Vía Verde de Ojos Negros

Vía Verde de Ojos Negros: Introduction

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pacopac, CC BY-SA 3.0. For most of the twentieth century, this line existed to move one thing: iron. Ore trains rumbled down from the mines of Ojos Negros in the mountains of Teruel, crossing plateaus and passes and descending nearly a kilometre to the sea at Sagunto, where the metal was smelted and shipped. When it was built in 1903, the route ran some 200 kilometres and was the longest privately owned railway line in Europe. The trains stopped in 1972, the mining company went bankrupt in 1987, and the rails were pulled up. But the corridor they left behind has found an unlikely second life.

Image: Pacopac | CC BY-SA 3.0

Vía Verde de Ojos Negros: An Iron Road to the Sea

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rafesmar, CC BY-SA 4.0. The story begins with money and rock. Late in the nineteenth century, rights to the rich iron deposits at Ojos Negros were granted to a group of Basque businessmen, who founded the Compañía Minera de Sierra Menera in 1900. The quality of the ore was excellent and the quantity vas...

Image: Rafesmar | CC BY-SA 4.0

Vía Verde de Ojos Negros: The Longest Greenway in Spain

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez (Qoan), CC BY-SA 3.0. In 2001 the Valencian regional government began converting its share of the abandoned line into a rail trail, and Aragon soon did the same for the stretch within its borders. The result is the Vía Verde de Ojos Negros, at 160 kilometres the longest greenway in Spain and part of a...

Image: Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez (Qoan) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Vía Verde de Ojos Negros: From Sea to Plateau

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JAVITROM, CC BY-SA 3.0 es. Because it was engineered for heavily laden trains, the trail climbs with the patience of a railway, never steeper than a gentle 3 to 5 percent. It divides into two great stages. The first, Ojos Negros I, runs about 70 kilometres inland from Algimia d'Alfara in Valencia up to Bar...

Image: JAVITROM | CC BY-SA 3.0 es

Vía Verde de Ojos Negros: Towns Along the Line

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AdelosRM, Public domain. A rail grade makes a superb sightseeing route, because railways were laid to link places worth reaching. The Ojos Negros greenway threads together a string of them: Segorbe, with its cathedral and medieval walls; Jérica, crowned by a Mudéjar bell tower declared a national monumen...

Image: AdelosRM | Public domain

Vía Verde de Ojos Negros: Riding the Grade

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit José Carlos Díez, CC BY 3.0. The gentle railway gradient makes the whole route accessible - to families, to older riders, and to people with disabilities, who can travel long stretches that a normal mountain trail would put out of reach. Weather is the main thing to plan around. The Valencian coast is hot an...

Image: José Carlos Díez | CC BY 3.0