A warrior stele found in Torrejón el Rubio and the Treasury of Serradilla are evidence of a highly hierarchical agricultural society inhabiting this area.

[3] Remains of Roman roads, bridges, fountains and gravestones can be found, since the park is close to the Ruta de la Plata (Silver Route).

Since the bridge was practically the only one crossing the Tagus in the Extremadura, it gave rise to pillage, turning the area into a "paradise" of bandits and robbers hidden in its steep and impenetrable mountain ranges.

It had a church, a fountain and barracks, but in spite of the privileges granted to its inhabitants, it never became more than a small village linked to Serradilla due to the danger and poverty of the area.

[3] The Spanish War of Independence destroyed the Castle of Monfragüe, the Bridge of the Cardinal and Castillejo del Pico in Miravete and Corchuelas, whose inhabitants fled to Torrejón the Rubio, Serradilla and Malpartida de Plasencia.

The impenetrable mountains with their maquis shrubland of the region were important to the highlander groups commanded by famous guerrillas like "Quincoces",[4] "Chaquetalarga" (Joaquín Ventas Cintas) and "the French" (Pedro Díaz Monje),[5] In 1966, construction of the dam at Torrejón el Rubio, and the Alcántara Dam in 1969 altered the landscape irreversibly, as it submerged the wild beauty of the Tagus riverbanks along with its ecological and ethnological wealth.

In 1991, Monfragüe was declared as a Special Protection Area for birds,[1] During the following years, the conservationist mentality, the infrastructure in Villarreal and publication efforts about the riches of the Park were strengthened.

[citation needed] However, there were two major changes in the years 1960–70: the river Tagus was dammed, affecting its course through the park and in 1970 brutal reforestation with non-indigenous eucalyptus and pine began.

The Sierra de Miravete and ravines of the streams Malvecino and Barbaón received a hard blow and important thickets of the Mediterranean forest disappeared.

The SPA (or ZEPA, the equivalent acronym in Spanish) extends beyond the park, where the nesting sites are concentrated, into the surrounding dehesas, which provide food for the birds.

[citation needed] Other breeding birds for which the park is important are black stork and Eurasian eagle owl and there is a high density of azure-winged magpie.