The Cañón del Río Lobos, a fault line in Castile

The canyon, Soria and the Urbión

You drive across a cereal plateau, flat and dry, between Soria and Burgos. Near Ucero, the road drops into the Cañón del Río Lobos: twenty-five kilometres of limestone gorge, protected as a nature park. Paths follow the river under the pines, at the foot of cliffs several tens of metres high. To see the canyon from above, you climb to the Mirador de la Galiana.

Three quarters of an hour away, Soria is one of the smallest provincial capitals in Spain. The Duero skirts it to the east, lined with poplars. In the evening, you can walk from the cloister of San Juan de Duero, with its interlaced arches, to the hermitage of San Saturio, clinging to the cliff. The poet Antonio Machado taught French in Soria in the early 20th century and wrote part of Campos de Castilla there. The town remembers him on every street corner.

North of Soria, the ruins of Numantia recall a Celtiberian town taken by Rome in 133 BC. North-west of Soria, the road climbs into the Sierra de Urbión, where the Duero rises. The Laguna Negra is a dark glacial lake at the foot of a cliff. Machado set his poem The Land of Alvargonzález there.

Just in front of the hermitage, the Cueva Grande opens in the rock face. The path then carries on along the river. At the bottom of the gorge, the car stays in the car park: you do everything on foot.

Griffon vultures nest in colonies on the ledges. You see them circling above the gorge, carried by the warm air. During the breeding season, some areas are restricted. Climbing is banned throughout the park.

The castles of the Duero

South of the canyon, the Duero was for almost two centuries the frontier between al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms. Gormaz Castle, built in the 10th century by the caliphs, stands above the river. Its walls run more than a kilometre round: it was one of the largest fortresses in Europe.

At Calatañazor, a saying has it that Almanzor ‘lost his drum’ there in 1002 — his glory, in other words. He died soon afterwards at Medinaceli. At El Burgo de Osma, a Gothic cathedral towers over an arcaded town. Near Berlanga, the Mozarabic hermitage of San Baudelio hides, under the plainest of roofs, a vault that springs from a central pillar like the fronds of a palm tree.

What not to miss

1. 1The hermitage of San BartoloméA lone thirteenth-century church on the gorge floor, which a stubborn legend calls Templar.
2. 2The Cueva GrandeA cave opening at the foot of the cliff, just opposite the hermitage.
3. 3SoriaA provincial town without mass tourism, three quarters of an hour away.
4. 4The Mirador de la GalianaThe canyon from above, from a balcony hanging over the cliffs, near Ucero.
5. 5Gormaz CastleA caliphal fortress whose walls run more than a kilometre round, above the Duero.
6. 6San Baudelio de BerlangaA small Mozarabic hermitage whose vault opens out like a palm tree.

The Cañón del Río Lobos in pictures

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The Laguna Negra, in the Sierra de Urbión.

Soria’s table

The province lives off its pinewoods and its flocks. Soria butter, with its protected designation of origin, is eaten on toast; torreznos, crisp-fried pork belly, come with the aperitif in every bar.

In autumn the pine forests fill with foragers: mushrooms make a season all of their own. And in Burgos, the speciality to take home is the rice black pudding, the morcilla.