MAIN SQUARE

MAIN SQUARE

BENCHMARK OF ANCIENT CITY AND CONTEMPORARY

PALACIO DE LA AUDIENCIA

Symbol of the city growth on the 16th century

The building, neoclassic, impressive and sober of rectangular floor plan, has a wide portico supported on huge pilasters upon which are supported 5 round archs which at the same time support the main floor with an adjoining balcony to six clearances embellished with pediments. The building hosted the Council, the Court and the Royal Prision in the basement. Nowadays, it is the Palacio de la Audiencia Cultural Centre where you can watch exhibitions, theatre plays, concerts, conferences...

It stands out a big clock installed in 1.862 with a  forge metallic ensemble that supports bells, one of which dates from the 16th century and still today marks the time. Antonio Machado gave the building a poetic touch referring to it in one of his poems:

House of the 12 lineages (current city council)

The building, is a perfect example of the civil architecture of Soria in the 17th century, of relevant simplicity and pot herrerian style, made of ashlar, with a ground floor with porticoes and two superior floors with balconies on the first one and wide windows on the upper one. The balconies are crowned with pediments on top of which we can see balled pyramids. Between the windows of the third floor there is a huge lineages shield, flagship of the Institution in which the knights of the 12 lineages and their weapons are represented. In the centre of the shield appears, acording to some sources criteria, the figure of King Alfonso the 8th, given that it appears without the crown; maybe because the king gave some privileges to the knights before his death.

House of the commons or of the common folk(current Municipal archive)

The voice of the people on the medieval Soria

The building is set on an arch, known as the Arch of the Horn given that there is one into the ceiling recalling the ancient bullfights celebrated in the Main Square for which the arch worked as the entrance door for bulls into the bullring. It is made of ashlar originally with two floors to which a third floor was added on the 20th century. On each of them three big openings are opened with round arch.
It started having different uses for which different remodeling were done since the 18th century: House of Weight were balances were calibrated, Police and Firefighters headquarters, House of culture, place for the rehearsals of the Local Music Band and nowadays Municipal Archive.

Palace of Doña Urraca or Palace of Sorovenga

Very close to the main square we can find this palace transformed on the 16th century and destroyed on a fire in 1603, from where the saint Bishop welcomed the Santa Teresa de Jesús procession at her arrival to thecity of Soria the 2nd of June 1581, giving them his blessing.

House next to City Hall

A good example of the architecture of the seventeenth century

From the late sixteenth century built in sturdy ashlar stone emblazoned with elaborate and bars on the windows. Among the openings are two big shields with helmet, crest and stars. Today it is a private house.

Lion's fountain

The travelling fountain

Right in the centre of the Main Square, halfway between the 12 lineages House and the Commons house, we can see this decorative fountain, one of the most emblematic fountains in the city. It counts with a wide platform of irregular dimensions upon which are supported two piles that spill water through the heads of beasts with a pipe. Above them, two sitting lions empty the above-mentioned piles.