Hotels in Soria

Soria

Soria sits on the banks of the Duero River in Castile and León, roughly 230 km northeast of Madrid. It is one of Spain's least-populated provincial capitals — fewer than 40,000 residents — which keeps its medieval core intact and largely crowd-free. The old town clusters around the Plaza Mayor and the 12th-century church of Santo Domingo, whose Romanesque façade is among the best-preserved in the peninsula. The ruins of Numancia, the Celtiberian settlement that resisted Roman siege until 133 BC, sit just 7 km north of the city center.

Visitors come for two main reasons: Romanesque architecture and nature. The Duero gorge carves through pinewood just outside town, forming the natural park of Las Hoces del Río Duratón nearby. Poets also make the pilgrimage — Antonio Machado taught French at the Instituto Antonio Machado from 1907 to 1912 and wrote some of his most celebrated verses here. His house is now a small museum. The surrounding Sierra de Urbión reaches 2,228 m at its peak and feeds the headwaters of the Duero.

Soria has a continental climate with cold winters — January averages around 3 °C — and mild summers. The city connects by road to Burgos (about 140 km west) and Zaragoza (about 160 km east). Direct bus services link Soria to Madrid in roughly 2.5 hours.