Village
San Pedro Manrique is a town in the province of Soria, capital of the comarca of Tierras Altas, situated in the valley of the río Mayor or Linares, a tributary of the Alhama and, therefore, of the Ebro. The municipality groups more than a dozen mountain settlements, incorporated in successive mergers during the 20th century, such as Vea, Sarnago, Valdelavilla or Taniñe. Its economy combines livestock farming and agriculture with the cured-meat industry, forestry and mushroom harvesting, and hospitality. On the night of San Juan it celebrates the Paso del Fuego, when the residents cross barefoot a carpet of oak embers, and the ritual of the Móndidas, a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 2005, in which women carry baskets with buns and branches decorated with saffron-dyed bread. It has 626 inhabitants.
Activity
On the night of San Juan, 23 June, the townspeople cross barefoot a carpet of oak embers without being burned, often carrying someone on their shoulders, before hundreds of spectators packed into the enclosure. The rite, of possible Celtiberian origin, is part of the Fiestas de San Juan y las Móndidas, in honour of San Juan Bautista and the Virgin of la Peña, before whose hermitage the bonfire is built up until only embers remain. After midnight, preceded by three trumpet calls, the people of San Pedro begin the dance over the embers; tradition holds that the first three to cross must carry on their shoulders the three móndidas of the festival. El Paso del Fuego was declared Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (a festival of national tourist interest) in 1980 and, together with las Móndidas, Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2005.
Curiosity
El Paso del Fuego and the Fiestas de las Móndidas, or Fiestas de San Juan, are held every year in San Pedro Manrique (Soria) in honour of San Juan Bautista and the Virgin of la Peña, and are of possible Celtiberian origin. On the night of San Juan, 23 June, an oak bonfire burns before the hermitage of the Virgin until only embers remain; after midnight, to the sound of three trumpet calls, the townspeople cross this path of embers barefoot, and the first three to cross carry on their shoulders the three móndidas, young women dressed in white who carry on their heads the cestaños, small baskets with loaves, flowers and branches. Declared Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (a festival of national tourist interest) in 1980 and Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2005.
Historical milestone
The Junta de Castilla y León declared the Paso del Fuego and the Móndidas a BIC that year, and in 2008 the festival obtained the rank of international tourist interest, the only one in the province of Soria.
Curiosity
A scientific study published in 2011 measured the heart rate of those who crossed the embers and of their relatives among the audience, and found that both beat in synchrony during the crossing.
Monument
Built in the 13th century on an outcrop on the outskirts of the town, the hermitage of the Virgin of la Peña is the region's Marian sanctuary and one of the few medieval buildings preserved intact in the Tierras Altas. Beside it the bonfire of the Paso del Fuego is lit, the rite of walking barefoot over embers that takes centre stage every year on the night of San Juan during the festivals of San Pedro Manrique.
Monument
The town of San Pedro Manrique preserves, atop the hill, the ruins of the Romanesque church of San Miguel, from the 13th century, which holds Romanesque carvings of the Apostles, and the Romanesque church of San Martín de Tours, from the 12th century, as well as remains of the castle on the outskirts and the ruins of the convent of San Pedro el Viejo.
Historical milestone
In barely five years the town council absorbed Vea, Buimanco, Armejún, Villarijo, Acrijos, Fuentebella, Matasejún, Sarnago, Taniñe and Ventosa, until it gathered eighteen settlements, most of them uninhabited today.
Curiosity
Several of the annexed hamlets were left completely depopulated in the sixties and seventies; associations of the villages' sons, such as that of Sarnago, maintain their houses and revive their festivities every summer.
Food and drink
The altitude and the dry air of these sierras cure a sausage of comarca-wide fame, with the spicy chorizo as the flagship product of a pork-butchery tradition that is still the villa's main draw.
Nature
The municipality of San Pedro Manrique extends along the valley of the Linares — called the río Mayor along its stretch in Soria province — which rises at the Oncala pass and widens its channel until it meets the río Ventosa before reaching the village. Further downstream, past the abandoned hamlet of Vea, the river closes its course into a small canyon as far as Villarijo, and further on enters La Rioja at Valdeperillo on its way to its mouth on the Alhama. The valley, with dry sierras such as that of Alcarama, hosts an agriculture of fruit trees, olives and almonds in its lower stretches, and on the heights slopes of oak woodland and pastures shaped over centuries by transhumant livestock farming. Along its stretch in Soria province the villages of Oncala, El Collado, San Pedro el Viejo, San Pedro Manrique, Vea, Peñazcurna and Villarijo follow one another.