Retortillo de Soria

Promptly at 4 pm, Berlanga de Duero’s only taxista showed up at the Hostal Muralla. It was about a half an hour to the church, through some pretty amazing landscape. Very barren and very rocky. We were the only ones at the church, and it gave me goose bumps. I could see the outlines of the frescoes that had been removed, and there were good pictures that re-created the inside of the chapel. Lots of horseshoe arches, a second floor private oratory, and an altar. There is also an entrance to a cave , where a hermit possibly lived. When this church was built, 10th or 11th century, it was right on the Christian-Muslim border.

Apparently the church was part of a small (long disappeared) monastery complex. When it was all abandoned, ownership passed to private hands. Then in the 20s, when US treasure hunters were lusting after Romanesque, and the churches in Catalunya wouldn’t part with their treasures, they descended on Soria. The private owners apparently were happy to sell and after a five-year court battle, the Supreme Court approved the sale. There are now pieces in Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Though I don’t understand how it happened, Spain was apparently able to recover a lot of the frescoes (a trade made with the Cloisters, perhaps?) and those are now in the Prado, where they introduced me to the beauty of Romanesque in 1970.

After our long visit, the taxista offered to take us through her town, Berlanga de Duero (though the Duero River is about 8 Km away). The castle is pretty amazing, and we also went to the interpretive center of San Baudelio. It explained the process of removing frescoes and then replacing them on different walls but I couldn’t understand it. The technique is called “strappo.”

Clare snd I will be sticking quite close tomorrow. The first part of our walk is off Camino, and the second part goes through a canyon which may have a few tricky parts. Weather looks good!Read more