Soria seen from the Mirón
‘People of the high Numantine plain
that you keep God like old Christians,
May the sun of Spain fill you
of joy, light and wealth! '(1).
Soria is a city, belonging to the Community of Castilla y León, which, as with Teruel, has always suffered the ostracism of a Central Administration that seems determined to imitate the ostrich technique, hiding its head underground, thinking that it is not It exists, when, in reality, talking about Soria capital inevitably entails referring to one of the most beautiful, pleasant and, in fact, magical cities that can be found in Spain.
Precisely in this high Numantine where Antonio Machado located, in addition to the poetry that serves as an introduction to this entry, other places of fascinating interest, is where one of the most beautiful, romantic and even poetic viewpoints is located, from which to appreciate, with the alert soul - as the poet would also say, in those other verses, when he dreamed of God and said 'wake up' - a city through which it seems that time, capricious at times, seems to have stayed eternally.
Towards the Mirón, located in the upper part of the city, basically at the end of the slope whose old road takes the traveler to Logroño and the fertile wine fields of La Rioja, it is accessed by a pleasant walk, in whose poplars there may not be those figures that are dates or those initials that are names, which the poet could already know at the beginning of the 20th century, on the banks of the Duero, when he settled in Soria and began his classes at the Institute that today bears his name.
If we had to go back to the legends and traditions, we could say that the Mirón, with its old church of Romanesque origins although much modified in different historical periods and molded to the tastes of many eras, is one of the most magical places in the capital.
In fact, it was here, in the meadow, where the church dedicated to the Virgen del Mirón stands today, in front of which stands a baroque monolith, at the top of which you can see the torso of San Saturio, the Patron Saint who has his own hermitage down there, past the Templar monastery of San Polo, where the Douro River makes a crossbow curve in its slow flow towards Portuguese lands to reach the nirvana of the waters of the Atlantic, where the Virgin, as it happened in Madrid, in In the 12th century, with San Isidro, he appeared to a farmer with the implicit desire that a hermitage should be built.
From that mysterious episode, some traces remain, such as the image, already of Gothic characters of the Virgin of Mirón and a number of miracles, among which it is worth highlighting - at least that is how the witnesses of the time affirm - the intercession when a worker he fell off the scaffolding, landing safely on the ground or on that occasion a ray penetrated through the temple of the dome, crossed the Main Altarpiece but without producing a single scratch on the image of the Virgin.
Leaving aside the mystery theme, in which everyone is very free to believe or not, the truth is that a walk around the Mirón, where the former Parador Nacional de Soria still stands, the Hotel Leonor Mirón -in the one I had the opportunity to spend the night again last week- leaves no one indifferent, because not only its eminent romanticism has to be taken into account, but also the fantastic views that help to value even more, if possible, a small but charming city , as is Soria capital, in whose medieval streets and charms we will immerse ourselves in a next post.
At the foot, the remains of the old medieval walls and the small Romanesque church of San Ginés, contrast with the magnificence of places such as the monastery of San Juan de Duero, located on one side of the banks of the Duero and in front of a mountain bare and soulless, where medieval monks had their snowfield and where the Sevillian writer and poet, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer placed his dark legend, entitled 'The Mound of Souls'.
Towards the part of the old bridge, on the left side, Machado's lovers' walk basically begins at the foot of the Templar monastery of San Polo - today a private property - and the hermitage of San Saturio, both located on the edge of the river Mount of Saint Ana, while on the opposite shore, at the top of the mountain, the huge and modern mass of the new National Parador, dedicated to the figure of Antonio Machado, resembles an old medieval fortress spreading its wings over a city that seems to drive everyone crazy. the summer solstices, in their famous festivals in honor of San Juan.
From the old bridge to the right and ascending a long slope, which if I remember correctly, bears the name of the Madrid Avenue and directs the traveler in all directions, the first interesting monument, whose singular mass dominates the surrounding houses, is the old Co-Cathedral of San Pedro, in whose interior the skull-reliquary -some claim that it is of Templar origin- with the head of San Saturio, as well as an authentic architectural jewel of the 12th century: its wonderful Romanesque cloister.
Above it, where the slope becomes flat and the border of the old town basically begins, the tower of the imposing Romanesque church of Santo Domingo -also known as Santo Tomé- augurs a spectacle to the lover of Art and History. grandiose, being, in addition, the place where King Alfonso VIII - who has dedicated one of the best hotels in the city - married the daughter of the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine.
To the front and to the left, also dominating with its huge neoclassical tower the heights of this monumental city, the church of the Virgin of Hawthorn and the cemetery where the remains of the young and unfortunate Leonor rest, who together with her husband, the poet Antonio Machado, will follow this same path on so many occasions and see, from his heights, the same views that I now propose to you.
By the way: in front of this church of the Virgin of Hawthorn -which practically only opens its doors in the event of weddings, baptisms, communions or deaths- is the trunk badly wounded and split by lightning, of the elm of the famous poetry in the that Antonio Machado compared it to the body consumed by the illness of his beloved Leonor.
At this point, we ended the visit, momentarily, to enter the most unique streets of being a beautiful and almost unknown Castilian city in the future, which, as the poet sang, is so beautiful in the moonlight.
References:
(1) Antonio Machado: ‘Campos de Soria’.
NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property and therefore are subject to my Copyright.
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