Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in San Esteban de Gormaz

What to see and do in San Esteban de Gormaz (Tierras del Burgo, Soria): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Curiosities · 1 Food and drink

Towns near San Esteban de Gormaz

Spain › Castile and León › Soria › Tierras del Burgo › San Esteban de Gormaz

What to see and do in San Esteban de Gormaz

San Esteban de Gormaz
Village
San Esteban de Gormaz is a town in Soria of almost 3,000 inhabitants, whose historic centre is declared a conjunto histórico-artístico (Spain's designation for a protected historic urban ensemble). Located in the Tierras del Burgo district, on the banks of the Duero, on the Ruta de la Lana and the Camino del Cid, it brings together eighteen annexed villages. The territory has known settlements since prehistory, and in the Arab period it was an important Christian stronghold, a military objective of both sides for two centuries, from when the Muslims began building their castle in the 9th century, when the place was called Castromoro, until it fell into the hands of the kingdom of Castile. Its churches of San Miguel and of la Virgen del Rivero display magnificent Romanesque arcaded galleries, and it preserves a medieval bridge over the Duero.
The porticoed gallery of San Miguel
Monument
Dated 1081, it is held to be the oldest known Romanesque arcaded gallery and the starting point of a formula that was repeated across the whole of eastern Castile. Its capitals show warriors on foot and on horseback, minstrels and dancers.
The signature of Master Julianus
Curiosity
A corbel of the gallery represents a monk with an open book on which one reads that the master Julianus made it in the era of 1119, that is in the year 1081: an author's signature exceedingly rare in peninsular Romanesque.
The riverside groves of the Duero at San Esteban
Nature
The Duero widens here into a flood plain of riverside groves, poplar stands and willows at the foot of the hills crowned by the wall. The river corridor serves as a refuge for the otter and as a passage for water birds on migration.
The wines of the Soria section of the Ribera del Duero
Food and drink
The eastern end of the Ribera del Duero designation of origin falls in the lands of Soria, where the tinta del país ripens in high-altitude vineyards with sharp temperature swings that give wines of intense colour and marked acidity.