Just a few minutes past ten o'clock in the morning, and after a brief conversation with the parish priest, who has indicated the address of the hermitage of the Virgen de la Llana, although it has been reserved, I suppose with some distrust, that he had the key to the room where the chest and the chains of the famous legend of the captive of Peroniel are kept-I am wandering dreamily through that no-man's land-let's put it in inverted commas-that constitute the fields that separate the hermitage from the imposing castle.

It is still an exciting adventure to step on this land full of History -and partially covered by a thick dew-shroud- while the windy, playful, roars at times, salivating a chill that hits the face and slashes the hands with a paw of a beast, as a legionary knight would say for the occasion.

Anchored on the hill, the castle is silhouetted against an ashen sky. Despite being one of the best preserved in the province - not in vain, we speak of a private property - nor banners nor banners are left to rock in the wind. At present the visitors, illustrious or humble, are recreated outside the walls, except those who are lucky enough to have the connivance of the owner.

But around the castle, everything is silence. As I approach, I have the impression that behind the arpilleras or the little windows, some eyes are watching me closely. But that impression soon disappears, replaced by the curious mixture of emotion that overwhelms me to know me near the place that served as the birthplace of Leonor, wife and undisputed muse of Don Antonio.

Yes, friends, I refer to Don Antonio Machado, that immortal poet, thanks to whose influence, every time I pass through Soria, I can not help but stop for a few minutes on the banks of the old Duero to see the golden poplars, poplars path on the banks of the Duero, between San Polo and San Saturio ... '.

As I can not forget, obviously, even a castle has roots. Asseveran those who understand, that in his childhood, the castle of Almenar was a Saracen watchtower that, connected with other related towers, was born to guard the road to Aragon. From that tower, around which time, attached to the caprice of men, made battlements and walls sprout, there is no longer any trace. Although there is certainly some vestige left, back in the XII or XIII centuries, because the castle is already mentioned, early, in the wonderful legend of the Seven Infants of Lara, not in vain related to the mythical cycles of the Holy Grail.

Within what fits, well you can say that both legend and literature were generous with him -referring back to the castle- because some years beyond the eighteenth century in which he was abandoned by his then owners, another immortal poet -Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer- also used it as an object of relevant prominence for several of his unforgettable legends.

And it is even possible, as it happens in other places, that of walls inside, there remains some incombustible shadow of that long series of illustrious dwellers that in the interim of the times, with their presence, contributed to provide it with ancestry, and it is even possible that , paraphrasing part of the motto of the Royal Spanish Academy of the Language, to give it, likewise, splendor.

Maybe if we listened attentively to this inconstant wind, which sometimes slaps you and sometimes caresses you, we will hear the rajoy cries in the madness of Charles II the Bewitched; or the bedroom confidances of King Felipe V and his wife, Mrs. Mª Luisa de Saboya. Or, going back even more in time -that for something the imagination is always a resource loaded with the future- the conversations of the first lord of Almenar: Don Hernán Bravo de Lagunas.

I suppose that, after all, the Sanctuary of Nª Sª de la Llana could not have better and more jealous guardian and ayo - with the blessing of the 'friend of men' and passionate folklorist, Demófilo, father of the illustrious poet (1) - for a beautiful flower, Leonor, whose petals withered with autumn, when they were just beginning to bloom.

Notes:

(1) Antonio Machado.

NOTICE: updated and expanded version of the one originally published on my blog SORIA IS WAY PATH WHEN WALKING. Both the text and the photographs are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry, where you can check the authorship of juancar347, can be found at the following address: https://juancar347.blogspot.com/2009/02/almenar-y-el-castillo-cuna-de-leonor.html

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Ars Oblivionis

ARS VTINAM MORE S/ANIMVM QVE EFFINGERE/POSSES PULCHRIOR IN TER/RIS NVLLA TABELLA FORET'
'ARTE, OJALÁ PUDIERAS REPRESENTAR EL CARÁCTER Y EL ESPÍRITU. NO HABRÍA SOBRE LA TIERRA IMAGEN MÁS BELLA'
[Martial, latin poet]