© Mark Wade
| Soria © Mark Wade |
Moorish town, the current capital of Soria province, 106 km from Logrono. Although the walls and castles of Soria evoke the Cid's time, they were in fact built after his death.
Soria seems to have been a humble place in the Cid's time. The site of the castle was inhabited in Celtic and Roman times, perhaps called Oria. It is mentioned as the site of an attack by Al-Hakkim in 868 (called Medina-Soria), and later as being ruled by the rebellious caudillo Suleiman-ibn-Abdos. But as the border between Muslim and Christian moved south, Soria's strategic position at the head of the Duero gave it strategic importance. The inner castle was believed to have been built by Count Fernan Gonzalez. It was repopulated by Alfonso I the Battler between 1109 and 1114. The city of Soria originated in this first castle, within a 1 square kilometer perimeter. A later outer enclosure, with more than eight kilometers of walls, was built later. It was one of the great fortifications in Spain by the end of the 12th Century. The French General Duran destroyed much of this medieval Soria in 1812.
Latitude: 41.77. Longitude: -2.46.
And there went fifty with Martin Garcia and Martin Salvadorez, and fifty with Pero Gonzalvez and Martin Munoz, and Diego Sanchez of Arlanza went with fifty, and Don Nuno, he who colonized Cubiella, and Alvar Bermudez he who colonized Osma, went with forty, and Gonzalo Munoz of Orbaneja, and Muno Ravia, and Yvanez Cornejo with sixty, and Muno Fernandez the Lord of Monteforte, and Gomez Fernandez he who colonized Pampliego with sixty; and Don Garcia de Roa and Serrazin his brother, Lord of Aza, with ninety; and Antolin Sanchez of Soria took with him forty knights who were his children or his kin:...nine hundred knights were they in all.