A GIS reconstruction of the Spanish postal network, 1720–1865

The database contains the postas (postal relay points) recorded in contemporary official postal sources and the carreras de postas (postal relay routes) reconstructed as line features. Postas are georeferenced functionally, at the most plausible location where the historical road network meets the settlement to which the source assigns the relay.

Carreras de postas are traced through hierarchised historical road layers rather than represented as straight-line connections between successive relays. The database also includes harmonised route and node classifications, information on the historical roads associated with each posta, indicators of continuity between cross-sections and comments documenting uncertain identifications and interpretative decisions.