Page 425 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

the 10th-century founder
of Castilla. Don’t miss the DETOUR:
graceful cloisters and the SANTO DOMINGO
sacristia with its vibrant DE SILOS
15th-century paintings
by Van Eyck and tryptic Start: a Covarrubias
Adoracion de los Magis. Nestled in the rolling hills just off the Burgos–Soria
The Drive » The N234 winds (N234) road, this tranquil, pretty village is built
southwest of Covarrubias around a monastery with an unusual claim to fame:
through increasingly contoured monks from here made the British pop charts in
country all the way to Soria. the mid-1990s with recordings of Gregorian chants.
Along the way there are signs Notable for its pleasingly unadorned Romanesque
to medieval churches and sanctuary dominated by a multidomed ceiling, the
hermitages marking many church (h6am-2pm & 4.30-10pm, chant 6am, 7.30am,
minor roads that lead off into 9am, 1.45pm, 4pm, 7pm & 9.30pm) is where you can hear
the trees. In no time at all
you’ll see the turn-off to Santo the monks chant. The monastery, one of the most SPAIN 30 HISTORIC CASTILLA Y LEÓN
Domingo de Silos. famous in central Spain, is known for its stunning
cloister (admission €3.50; h10am-1pm & 4.30-6pm Tue-
Sat, 4.30-6pm Sun), a two-storey treasure chest of some
b Soria of Spain’s most imaginative Romanesque art. Don’t
Small-town Soria is miss the unusually twisted column on the cloister’s
western side. For sweeping views over the town, pass
one of Spain’s smaller
provincial capitals. Set under the Arco de San Juan and climb the grassy hill
to the south to the Ermita del Camino y Via Crucis.
on Río Duero in the
heart of backwoods
Castilian countryside, north is the beautiful interlaced arches in the
it has an appealing and Romanesque Iglesia de partially ruined cloister.
compact old centre, and Santo Domingo (Calle A lovely riverside walk
a sprinkling of stunning de Santo Tomé Hospicio; south for 2.3km will take
monuments. The narrow h7am-9pm), with a small you past the 13th-century
streets of the town centre but exquisitely sculpted church of the former
on Plaza Mayor, with its portal of reddish stone Knights Templar, the
attractive Renaissance- that seems to glow at Monasterio de San Polo
era ayuntamiento and sunset. Down the hill by (not open to the public),
the Iglesia de Santa the river east of the town and on to the fascinat-
María la Mayor, with its centre, the 12th-century ing, baroque Ermita de
unadorned Romanesque Monasterio de San Juan San Saturio (Paseo de San
facade and gilt-edged de Duero (Camino Monte de Saturio; h10.30am-2pm &
interior. A block north is las Ánimas; admission €0.60, 4.30-7.30pm Tue-Sun).
the majestic, sandstone, Sat & Sun free; h10am-2pm
16th-century Palacio & 5-8pm Tue-Sat, 10am-2pm 54 p425
de los Condes Gomara Sun) has many gracefully
(Calle de Aguirre). Further

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