The A-4 or Autovía del Sur (Spanish for ''Southern Highway'') is a major Spanish

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

and autopista route connecting

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

. One of the six radial highways of the country, it was also known as Autovía de Andalucía (Spanish for ''

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

Highway'') before 2015. The road is entirely part of the European route E5. It mostly follows the path of the former N-4 road, crossing the provinces of

, Toledo,

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ) is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. It was founded as Villa Real in 1255 as a ro ...

, Jaén, Córdoba,

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

and

. Between

and

, the highway is known as Autopista AP-4, extending over 123.80 km. AP-4 used to be a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...

before 1 January 2020. The original N-4 in this section remained in service as a free option for this reason. The construction works required major engineering work to tunnel through Despeñaperros Natural Park in the Province of Jaén, which separates the autonomous communities of

and Castilla-La Mancha. Construction started in the 1960s, reaching the city of

in 1992 and the

Province of Cádiz Cádiz is a Provinces of Spain, province of southern Spain, in the southwestern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the southernmost part of mainland Spain, as well as the southernmost part of ...

in the 2000s.

Sections

Gallery

RCE A-4.png, Road sign Autovia A4.jpg, Autovía A-4 through

Valdemoro Valdemoro is a municipal district, located in the Southern zone of the Madrid (autonomous community), autonomous community of Madrid, Spain. Located 27 kilometers from the Madrid, capital, Valdemoro is officially part of the comarca of La Sagra, ...

Guarromán, Jaén.jpg, Autovía A-4 through Guarromán in Jaén

External links

Autopista AP-4 ConcessionaireAutovía A-4 in Google Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Autovia A-4 A-4 A-4 A-4 A-4