Soria

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Soria municipality
Soria - Plaza Mayor
Soria - Plaza Mayor
coat of arms Map of Spain
Soria coat of arms
Soria (Spain)
Finland road sign 311 (1994-2020) .svg
Basic data
Autonomous Community : Castile LeonCastile and León Castile and León
Province : Soria
Coordinates 41 ° 46 ′  N , 2 ° 29 ′  W Coordinates: 41 ° 46 ′  N , 2 ° 29 ′  W
Height : 1065  msnm
Area : 271.77 km²
Residents : 39,398 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density : 144.97 inhabitants / km²
Postal code : 42001-42005
Municipality number  ( INE ): 42173
administration
Website : Soria

Soria is the capital of the province of Soria in the east of the autonomous region of Castile and León . With 39,398 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) it is the second smallest provincial capital in Spain after Teruel , and around 40% of the inhabitants of the province, which belongs to the sparsely populated Serranía Celtibérica , live in it.

Location and climate

The city of Soria is located on the upper reaches of the Duero River and east of the Sierra de la Demanda at an altitude of about 1065  m ; the cities of Madrid and Saragossa are about 230 km southwest and 160 km east, respectively. The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 570 mm / year) falls throughout the year, with the exception of the rather dry summer months.

Population development

year 1857 1900 1950 2000 2018
Residents 5,603 7.151 16,878 34,088 39,112

As a result of the mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the resulting loss of jobs, the rural population has migrated to the larger cities since the beginning of the 20th century ( rural exodus ).

economy

The city of Soria is the mercantile, handicraft and service center of a province that is still largely agriculturally oriented, but - due to the altitude - not very fertile. Small industrial companies have settled in the outskirts of the city.

history

Ermita de San Saturio (18th century) on the Duero

On the Cerro del Castillo , one of the two town hills of Soria, there was once a Celtiberian settlement. About 8 km to the north (near Garray ) are the ruins of Numantia , a Celtiberian oppidum that has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and that was founded in 133 BC. Was destroyed by Roman troops of the younger Scipio (Aemilianus) in the Numantine War after repeated attacks and long sieges. Emperor Augustus had the city rebuilt. Finds from the Visigothic and Islamic-Moorish times are rather rare in the city.

Town hall (right), from 1605 to 1897 the seat of the "twelve families of Soria"

Efforts to recapture Soria were made as early as the 10th century, but it was not until 1079 that the last Moorish local ruler handed the city over to King Alfonso VI. from León ; For a long time Soria remained a controversial border town between Christian and Islamic spheres of influence (see Atalaya ). In the years between 1109 and 1114, the Aragonese King Alfonso I finally conquered the city, but a new dispute arose between the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon about territorial supremacy. The later Castilian King Alfonso VIII was born in Soria in 1155; numerous churches and monasteries sprang up in the city during his reign.

Since the Middle Ages, noble families have been able to stabilize and expand their influence in the management of the city through the establishment of the community of the " Twelve Sexes of Soria " (Doce Linajes de Soria) . Through royal privileges, they had special municipal rights that were granted to them until the end of 1836. Today's town hall was their common seat and is still adorned with the arms of the nobility on the main portal.

In 1380, a court order by the Cortes of Soria forbade Jews from settling their own criminal cases . In addition, a decree by King Heinrich II, who had died a year earlier, was confirmed, according to which Jews were not allowed to be employed in the royal administration or with nobles. These resolutions served the archdeacon Ferran Martinezals as the basis for hate sermons that led to massacres of the Jewish population in 1391.

Attractions

Churches

Soria has a rich heritage of Romanesque buildings, especially churches built by the Castilian King Alfonso VIII .

  • The co- cathedral of San Pedro has been the second episcopal church of the Diocese of Osma-Soria since 1959, next to the cathedral in El Burgo de Osma, 60 km away . The purely Romanesque windows and cloister are still preserved from the 12th century building, which collapsed in 1520 . The new building, completed in 1573, had been redesigned in a plateresque manner. Inside there are two interesting altarpieces : in the apse a renaissance- style retable and on the right-hand side a plateresque-style tower.
  • The chapel of San Saturio (on the right bank of the Duero) houses a valuable Flemish triptych from 1559 from San Pedro.
  • The former monastery church of Santo Domingo from the 12th century is strongly influenced by French and looks like a miniaturized repetition of Notre-Dame-la-Grande de Poitiers . The important west facade is divided into two floors with blind arcades. There is a large rose window in the gable . The portal is richly decorated with sculptures in the archivolts and in the tympanum .
  • From the former monastery of San Juan de Duero of the Knights Templar from the 12th century, the single-nave church with apse and presbytery in front and the cloister from the 13th century have been preserved. In its construction, the cloister expresses the different cultures of medieval Spain: elements of the Romanesque, Gothic , Mudejar and oriental influences are present.
  • The church of San Juan de Rabanera , built in the early Romanesque style in the 12th century , shows Byzantine influences, but also Gothic pointed arches .
  • Other churches worth seeing in the city are Santa Maria la Mayor , Nuestra Señora de la Merced , El Hospital , El Salvador , the Carmelite Church and the La Soledad Chapel . On the outskirts there are two baroque pilgrimage churches from the 18th century, the Ermita de la Virgen del Mirón and the Ermita de San Saturio, which is dedicated to the patron saint of the city .

  • San Pedro co- cathedral

  • San Pedro , cloister

  • Santo Domingo , west facade

  • San Juan de Duero , choir part

  • San Juan de Duero , cloister

  • San Juan de Rabanera

City palaces and bridges

Museums

  • The Museo Numantino is dedicated to the archaeological finds from Numantia .

Personalities

  • Saturius of Soria (around 493 – around 570), Visigoth bishop and saint
  • The Spanish lyric poet Antonio Machado (1875–1939) lived and worked in Soria from 1907 to 1912.

literature

Web links

Commons : Soria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
  2. ↑ Soria - climate tables
  3. ^ Soria - population development
  4. Jump up ↑ Soria Story
  5. Jump up ↑ Soria Story
  6. ^ Soria - Museo Numantino