T
HE LAND
OF THE B
U R G O
Art Reflected by the ligth
El Burgo de Osma Cathedral
This is a land of blue and clear skies, bright light, forests of sabines and red soil. A route that covers one of the most monumental areas in the province. It would be unusual for an overcast day to darken the route leading off road from Valladolid, which will take you to Calatañazor. If you drive through, be ready to savour the charm of a well-conserved and one of the most visited villages in the region. The descent, full of twists goes in the direction of the river Milanos. There is a great sunlight that floods the day. Behind one of those curves, you will discover a twelveth or thirteenth-century scene, a prelude of the wonderful scenery to come.
After this exquisite visit through this fascinating medieval locality, you will find a bit farther a forest of sabine trees over 20 metres high and two metres wide; they are next to the road leading to Muriel de la Fuente. This centenarian forest, designated a Natural Area, grows on the plain and watches over an itinerary, whose next turn off leads to Avioncillo. This hamlet, which was about to enlarge the list of the uninhabited villages, currently has a didactic centre of resources, laboratories, kitchens and a traditional oven, an ethnographic museum, a chicken coop, a vegetable garden, a forge, etc. Courses and pedagogical activities have brought this village-school rebuilt by a group of teachers in the 80's back to life. The reconstruction has made it possible to recover the architecture of the installations that were once semidemolished.
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CALATAÑAZOR Calatañazor will greet you with houses of stone, adobe and wood. Its balconies open onto the arcades, while time stops on the cobblestones. The village, declared an historic-artistic monument, has a road where Roman remains of the orignal may still be seen, but the magic that wafts through the conical chimneys has a Medieval taste. Savour this wonderful antiquity: go into the Romanesque church with Gothic nuances. Then go to the square and to the rollo, a kind of round column, and end up in the remains of the castle. They say it was in this Valley of Blood, now full of wheat, where Almanzor lost his drum. Immerse yourself in the legend of Christian and Muslim history; share it with vulture ests, crags and tombs. Visit the bars, inns, restaurants and lodges. Get in touch with older times in the ethnologic museum... Just one comment on cinema: Orson Welles filmed Campanadas a media noche in this scenary which today is, extraordinarily yours. |
Calatañazor
the Ucero Castle
Go back to the crossroads to get the road to Muriel de la Fuente. There, near the village, we find La Fuentona, bathed by the waters of the Abion river. Plunge into the beauty of the scene. Dive into this dialogue of light and water, and under the bright light wind your way to the Valladolid road. After a few kilometres there is a sign announcing the detour to Rioseco. There, you will find a rustic golf court, rural accommodation, restaurants, a church with a Romanesque apse, a baptismal fountain, which could well be Visigothic, and a medieval column built from three columns of the Quintanares Roman villa -by the way, the marble Saturn of the Museo Numantino belong to this villa. Near there, the church of Torreandaluz exhibits a splendid Romanesque portico. Retrace your steps. It is a long visit that finishes in El Burgo de Osma, where you will be overwhelmed with visits and walks. Gaze upon the flawless contours of a locality full of patrimony. Afterwards, your eyes and stomach full, continue your trip to a privileged village just before the Canyon of River Lobos: Ucero, a medieval, narrow and beautiful village. The ruins of a Templar Castle preside over a fertile valley. Its streets are made of stone and there are hills everywhere. Its enclave is privileged, there are rural tourism establishments and a church that reminds one of the warrior monks of the Christ of the Templars. Not far from there we find the cave of the Zorra, which is 130 metres deep into the rock. It is only a small part of the conduit which used to provide water to the old town of Uxama. On the way back to El Burgo de Osma, you will have to stop again in Fuentearmegil, another village which is the cradle of Fray Fernandez Núñez, the only Templar whose name is known. There is a church with an Arabic portico and Mudejar wainscoting, a column with chains from the ancient dungeon, and three medieval steles: one in the Numantino Museum, another in the hermitage and the last one in the pelota court.
Berzosa, another village which is very near, offers you the opportunity to visit one of the oldest Romanesque churches in the rural area in this province: San Martín de Tours. This eleventh-century church has an archway gallery and beautiful capitals. A bit further on there is Navapalos, a tiny village which became deserted in 1960.
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TERTIARY RELIC Historical specimens, the sabines twist slowly on the plain of Calatañazor. They are relics of the terciary Era whose slow and patient growth allows them to live around five hundred years. The sabine forest of Calatañazor (a blaze of beauty entitled "Natural Area") also gives shelter and food in winter to an interesting variety of birds that further enhance life in this centenarian wood that extends to Muriel de la Fuente. Just after the fish farm of this village, you will find a lagoon, La Fuentona, another wonder declared a Natural Area, which leaves the subterranean world to flow strong and freezing. It is a small lake and also the birth of Abión, a karstic pool full of trout where the worlds of light and water converge. If possible, try to go in the early hours of a sunny day: the sun reflects on the surface and colour reflects on the bottom, where imagination has created monsters and nymphs. |
Yet, from 1985, people working on a research proyect, have reconstructed it imitating the ancient style with clay, the main material.
Navapalos and the river Caracena are part of the route of the Cid, the Route of Exile, and Per Abbat, a clergyman who may have copied or even written the Epic of the Cid, lived in Fresno de Caracena. From there we glimpse a fabulous hamlet with vultures and rocky outcrops. Caracena is magnificent. It is one of the most suggestive scenes, composed of fertile valleys, canyons and the remains of the walls that protect the rural treasures. The canyon, which descends to Taracueña, a village with an archeological site from the bronze Era, a Barroque pillory, a Romanesque bridge, a prision, a castle, noble and popular houses and two temples: a Romanesque church from the twelth century, Santa María, and San Pedro, an Historic Monument, with a wonderful portico.
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The origin of the town of El Burgo de Osma is Uxama, the Celtiberian-Roman town set built over a fort on a hill protected by Ucero Mountain. The town of Arévaca, which is as important as the towns of Numancia and Tiermes, provides mosaics, ceramics, coins, sculptures and craftworks to the Numantino Museum. However, it also preserves in situ remains of the constructions. The route will then lead lead you to an anciant hill, where from the Osma Castle, you will able to scan the horizon. Down the hill, there is a restored stone bridge over a bend in the river Ucero which runs beside the Torre del Agua and the church of Santa Cristina, which houses the incorrupt body of Saint Cristina on the high altar. Do not be misled by the architecture of adobe of the old Osma. It was an important site in the Middle ages. The town raised the citywalls and it also had a fortified town, where San Pedro de Osma constructed a Romanesque temple over the remains of a Visigothic one. That was just the start for a villa that would later become the episcopal centre of a province. A villa full of treasures and one of the most important localities in the development in Soria
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RÍO LOBOS CANYON The Río Lobos Canyon constitutes an amazing karstic gorge, where a harsh water courses continuously and has burrowed a huge natural sculpture. Sabines and typical vegetation of the Ribera region accompany it the whole way. It is a Natural Park where vultures have found their perfect habitat. The most common access is from Ucero to San Bartolomé, a small XII century church placed in a wonderful site full of symbolism and geographical similarities where you are absorbed by things from the Earth and the sky. A bit further, the canyon, carved by the Lobos river, gets narrower. You will find interesting structures, the result of the action of water and time, that fill the canyon of cavities (the whole region is destination of spelunkers in search of caverns and caves). One of them is the Galiana, where there are guided visits through its maze of stalactites. |
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El Burgo de Osma, an historic-artistic monumental city, has one of the richest legacies of the province. Main street, with arcades, shows the first meeting between art and architecture. The square is full of bars and terraces. On the left, we can see the town hall and on the right the Barroque San Agustín Hospital which today is the Tourism Office and cultural centre. And if you continue walking through those castilian arcades and noble buildings you will come to a beautiful and irregular square, surrounded by porched houses, a fountain and walls. The cathedral presides over the square with its delicious mixture of Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Neoclasic. Get into the serenity of the late-Gothic cloister , where there are still few Romanesque remains. Go up to the tomb of the saint who founded the cathedral. In the museum you will enjoy the choir books, codexes, incunabulum, gold and silver works and sacred objects from around the region. There is also the altarpiece, done by Juan de Juni and Picardo, the beato de Osma, an illustrated codex from the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Renaissance staircase, the Romanesque and Gothic carvings, the capricious light through the stained-glass window... After this time of chiaroscuro, leave the place and go to San Miguel's Gate, where you will find the convent of Carmen and a park that houses more than forty vegetable species. Further on, where the Ucero and Abion rivers meet, you will see the Tenerias quarter, full of Jewish snygogues. Walk through all those streets, with their taverns and restaurants -in winter you may take part in the ritual of hog butchering. There are still monuments to be visited, such as the Neoclassical Seminar, the Plateresque facade of the University of Santa Catalina, the ancient Hospice with 365 windows. You may as well use your map to make some other visits if you wish. |
TOURIST OFFICES:
Patronato Provincial de Turismo.
C/ Caballeros, 17. 42002, Soria.
Tfno. 975 220 511. Fax. 975 231 635.
e-mail: turismo@dipsoria.com
http://www.sorianitelaimaginas.com
Soria
42002.
C/ Medinaceli, 2.
975 212 052. Abierta todo el año.
El Burgo de Osma 42300.
Plaza Mayor, 9.
975 360 116. Abierta todo el año.
Medinaceli 42240.
689 734 176. Abierta todo el año.
Abejar 42146.
975 373 297. *
Ágreda 42100.
Plaza Mayor, 1. 976 192 714.
Almazán 42200.
Plaza Mayor, s/n. 975 310 502.
Berlanga de Duero 42360.
Plaza Mayor. 975 343 433.
Garray.
975 252 001.
San Esteban de Gormaz 42330.
975 350 292. *
San Leonardo de Yagüe 42140.
975 376 052. *
Vinuesa 42150.
Castillo
de Vinuesa s/n. 975 378 170.
* Open all the weekends from Eastern to Christmas and all the summerdays.
Textos: Susana Gómez
Traducción: Lucía Pintado
