Matter of taste | Paradores Territory

In a sestil (or sesteadero) formed by 12-meter holly trees, the cattle take refuge from the heat, the rain or whatever happens in Soria. This bush with red berries, which has the shape of a tree in the Garagüeta holly, grows so much and so tall that it creates a natural stable where mares and cows come to lock themselves in and hikers go to get out of their routine and their city. The forest, of 406 hectares and located 30 kilometers from the capital, is beginning to be at its best these days. The fruits ripen and the inhabitants of Arévalo de la Sierra (44 men and 25 women, according to the INE) are going to undertake pruning so that the artisans can prepare Christmas wreaths and centerpieces with red balls. The oyster mushrooms and others pointed out by local guide Cristina Martínez have already come out. Visitors come to Soria at this time from all over the world fungi, as the expert describes, and because the torrezno is very attractive, although the Duero leaves a greater aftertaste, which the parador overlooks from the top of the Castillo hill. The hotel serves this fried bacon even for breakfast and also offers a mycological menu to connect more with the land and the landscape.

Inside the hostel

A circular look

Opened in 1966 and completely remodeled in 2005, the Soria parador is located on the Castillo hill. The park of the same name, developed in the mid-20th century, surrounds it as if it were a forest. The hotel is located high above the city and seems separate from it, but it only takes 10 minutes to walk to the Plaza Mayor. This panoramic view from the roof allows you to see everything that you will visit later.

The past is present

The ground floor of the so-called Antonio Machado parador exhibits the remains of the wall from the times of Alfonso I of Aragon (1073-1134) on which it is built. Next to these ruins are the rooms for business events. Antonio Machado lived between 1907 and 1912 in Soria, where he met his wife, Leonor Izquierdo, and where a large part of his poems included in the work were born. Fields of Castile.

Without losing sight of the mountain

The cafeteria offers views of the mountains and the Duero, which surrounds the Castle hill. In autumn, the parador offers a package that includes a two-night stay, an outing to pick mushrooms and a mycological menu at night in its restaurant. Their usual dishes are also available, which attract visitors all year round: Castilian soup, suckling lamb, torreznos…

park and stones

The people of Soriano go up to walk or play sports in this natural environment shared with the archaeological remains of the medieval castle in the photo. The ruins that appear in the continuous excavations attract new visitors, says director Uxía López, who then take the opportunity to have a drink on the terrace or in the hotel cafeteria. Celtiberian remains have also been found, due to the proximity of Numancia (7 kilometers away).

airplane mode

One of the 67 silent rooms of the Soria parador, where 98% of national clients are isolated, mostly from Catalonia, the Community of Madrid and the Valencian Community. Along with mycological tourism, now in autumn the rutting is added. From the parador they organize trips to the countryside to see the deer during the mating season.

Former

Following

That’s what visitors look for, says Uxía López, the director of the Soria parador. “Go hiking and eat well,” he summarizes. The torrezno – the strategy of marketing To turn this product into a claim, you study at the university – it is obvious when you arrive at the hotel cafeteria. It is presented raised on the bar, inside a protective display case, as if it were a gold and ruby ​​tiara. But there is much more, and that is what López is doing, teaching it. The four-course menu based on local mushrooms is now in October and November and the one that focuses on truffles is now in January and February. They will also participate in the Soria Mycological Tapa Week (November 8-17). “This is how the people of the city go up to have a drink, try it and score it, because it is a contest,” says the director, from Compostela, who in the six months she has been at the parador is determined to make it attractive also for the people of Soriano, in which they consider it theirs.

For outsiders, the hotel is a strategic point from which to start a visit to Soria. Being located high above the ruins of the medieval wall, it allows you to contemplate the monuments of the city and the Duero in the distance. Historian Marisol Encinas leads a walking tour of the outskirts of the inn. He carries a folder with images and documents that he obtains from official archives, the job of a historian to go to the original source. The visitor first observes the stones and then the plans or drawings from another era that Encinas shows him. No technology is needed: just some photocopies and the knowledge of this cultural manager, who tells it with such dedication that one imagines the Sorians destroying the castle so that the French or any potential invader would not be quartered, or centuries before an aljama with weight in Castilla, a Jewish community with a synagogue, school, butcher shop…

“I adapt to all groups, whether they walk more or less, whether they are many or few,” says the medievalist. “I have even visited a single person who came from Valencia. Now we are friends. It has returned several times,” boasts this 42-year-old scholar, now immersed in the study of death in the three monotheistic cultures. Two degrees, master’s and doctorate, from UNED, after having to interrupt his studies as a young man and work in a factory. “My battle is quality, it’s what moves me,” he insists from the Castle’s viewpoint, which points to the Duero and the hermitage of San Saturio, in the baroque style (1704).

—What moves visitors who come to Soria for the first time and what do they say when they have met it?

—They come for the gastronomy, for the torrezno and the mushrooms, now in season. And they leave delighted with the quality tourism we have. It is not a typical tourism. Here there is no visiting schedule to follow, nor are there large groups chasing a flag. Other times are handled. This is not crowded. And they discover the Duero from the parador, the Renaissance palace of the counts of Gómara, the Romanesque cloister of the San Pedro co-cathedral, the Garagüeta holly.

Through this forest of hollies nature guide Cristina Martínez travels daily, who highlights an apparent contradiction: “The area is natural due to the intervention of man,” she says. The cattle, driven by the shepherds, feed on the grass in this pasture half an hour from the inn. The forest in which the cows take refuge is passable for hikers because it is clear, free of undergrowth, and it is not only a recreational area. It is the proper way of preserving space – the one that has been done for centuries. The day there are no cows and mares, their work will have to be replaced mechanically, and that will be a less natural intervention.

Natalia, David and Marta recommend

I am from Vinuesa and I want to recommend the area around the Urbión peak. But not the Black Lagoon, which is very well known, but the Green Lagoon. It is not so easy to find it, but the path is accessible, I go with my small children. Due to its altitude, boletus grow very well.

Natalia Hernandez

Waitress 6 years in Paradores

A little further down from the parador, you take a path that runs along the Duero, along which you can reach Garray by bike and then continue to Mount Valonsadero, a very Soriano site because previous events are held there for the Saint’s Day festivities. Juan. It will be about eight kilometers.

David Cervel

Receptionist 27 years in Paradores

I recommend the Mantequilla valley, at the foot of the Cebollera mountain range, which borders La Rioja. The meadow remains green even in summer and hiking trails start from there. There are several small towns, to get there you have to go towards Tera. They call it the little Switzerland of Soria.

Martha Juan

Head of room 24 years in Paradores

All this is explained in the four, six or twelve kilometer routes organized by this environmental educator. Walkers enjoy this protected reserve and communal forest, which provides work because it must be maintained and because several families live from grazing and selling holly. The pruning of a sector of the forest will soon begin, which is its turn after six years. Acebarillo is in charge, a local company made up of five partners, including Martínez. Talking about establishing a population in Soria is saying a lot (from the 120 inhabitants registered in Arévalo de la Sierra in 1996 it has risen to 69 in 2023); But it can be assured that they carry out sustainable practices, a word that is becoming meaningless, but is the correct one.

The red kite takes advantage of the morning air currents and, scavenger as it is, goes for a carcass of a sick or old woman. In a field, among the stones, rodents move, meat of the golden eagle. If the sun shines, on the sestile it becomes night; If it’s cold, lower the temperature. Martínez points to a trunk that has collapsed within this natural block. “It will be 600 or 800 years old, as long as hollies live. The young feet next door (branches that sprout) will keep the forest alive,” he says. Its wood is very resistant and of great value: shepherds build poles to herd livestock. The windows of the Royal Palace in Madrid are made of holly, reports Martínez and the Ministry of Culture website.

María Polo wants to give importance to the rainbow trout that she grows in DueroNatura, a fish farm very close to the caliphal castle of Gormaz, 60 kilometers from Soria. This trained biologist takes 1,200 kilos of fish a month from ponds that she fills with water from a spring. Its main activity is supplying restaurants and fishmongers and doing so (again) with sustainability in mind, but it also organizes visits with the impulse of the inn to publicize the rural way of life. “We don’t move on a donkey,” says Polo, who was born in Madrid, lived in London and worked as a volunteer in Bolivia and Peru. They gut the trout by hand before transporting them in reusable boxes instead of the white polystyrene ones. The feed is brought from Burgos, next door. The ponds are protected with mesh so that the cormorant does not feed on the fish and ruin the harvest. A horse helps clear the field. Chickens of breeds from different countries lay eggs. The garden produces tomatoes when it’s time. Anyone who wants can learn to fish in a pond.

—How do you give importance to trout? How do you cook it?

—Percy is Peruvian and makes ceviche with it. It may not be the most suitable fish for this dish, but don’t see how it turns out.