Spain’s Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has launched a pioneering project to give a second life to some of the country’s most emblematic but neglected roads. Known as the IVAPCHETE project, the initiative aims to identify, evaluate and rehabilitate historic sections of the state road network that no longer function as roadways but retain exceptional cultural, environmental and territorial value.
The first pilot project has been launched on the former N-IV road between Santa Elena, in the province of Jaén, and Almuradiel, in Ciudad Real. This stretch, which crosses the Despeñaperros gorge, has been chosen as a test case for a new national strategy to treat historic roads as part of Spain’s transport heritage, rather than as obsolete infrastructure. The project has already identified 187 historic road sections, totalling 5,073 km that could potentially be granted heritage status.
Despeñaperros occupies a central place in this network, both for its historical importance and for its symbolic and landscape value within Jaén and Andalusia as a whole.
For centuries, the Despeñaperros pass was far more than a scenic crossing. It marked a frontier between the Meseta Central and southern Iberia, serving in turn as a military choke point, a commercial corridor and a vital route for movement between regions. Before the arrival of modern motorways and railway tunnels, the old road winding through what is now a national park was the only land passage across the Sierra Morena. Much of that route still survives, with its original curves, retaining walls, road surfaces and engineering works offering a tangible record of Spain’s infrastructural history.
The section selected for restoration extends for 28.6 kilometres and runs through a dramatic landscape of steep cliffs, sheer drops of more than 500 metres and river valleys below. Over time, however, its narrow layout and declining maintenance turned it into one of the most hazardous stretches of road in the country. That risk has since been sharply reduced by the construction of the A-4 motorway, whose tunnels and viaducts bypass the gorge and significantly shorten journey times, leaving the old N-IV largely redundant for motor traffic.
It is precisely this redundancy that makes the route an ideal candidate for what the Ministry defines as a “unique historical road”: infrastructure that no longer serves as a main transport artery but retains outstanding heritage, environmental and spatial significance. The rehabilitation of Despeñaperros will function as a testing ground, helping authorities establish criteria for how such roads should be restored, what new uses are appropriate, and how they can be integrated into broader strategies for sustainable mobility and heritage enhancement.
Crucially, the project does not seek to reopen these roads to conventional traffic. Instead, the aim is to halt their deterioration, preserve their defining features and adapt them for low-impact uses compatible with their surroundings. These may include cultural itineraries, cycling routes and pedestrian paths, echoing the philosophy behind Spain’s highly successful greenways programme. Since the 1990s, that scheme has transformed disused railway lines into recreational corridors that have supported rural development, sustainable tourism and local employment across large parts of the country.
The Spanish Railways Foundation, which has managed the greenways programme for more than three decades, is now transferring its technical expertise to the road sector. Under the agreement with the Ministry, the foundation will help develop restoration methodologies, design standards, signage systems and public outreach strategies, laying the groundwork for a future national network of rehabilitated historic roads.
If the Despeñaperros pilot proves successful, the project could transform neglected infrastructure scattered across Spain into a new set of cultural assets, enriching the country’s heritage for locals and visitors alike.
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