1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Soria (city)

SORIA, the capital of the Spanish province of Soria; on the right bank of the river Duero (Douro), 155 m. N.E. of Madrid by the Madrid-Alcuneza-Soria railway. Pop. (1900), 7151. Soria has a provincial institute, schools for teachers of both sexes, many primary schools, savings banks, two hospitals, barracks, a theatre and a bull-ring. The churches of Santo Domingo and San Nicolas, the cloisters of the convent of San Juan, and several other ecclesiastical buildings are fine specimens of Romanesque work of the 12th and 13th centuries. Near the Duero are the ruins of the old citadel, and in many places the remains of the 13th century walls of the city are yet standing. The more modern streets are clean and well paved. The bridge across the Duero is a massive structure which formerly had a tower in the centre. The population is chiefly agricultural; but there are also flour mills, tanneries, potteries, &c.; and some trade in timber, wool and fruit is carried on. The Iberian and Carthaginian city of Numantia, captured in 133 B.C. by the Romans, after a long and heroic resistance, was situated 3 m. N., on a hill overlooking the confluence of the small river Tera with the Duero.