Holy Week in Soria and Zaragoza

April 20, 2014

Well, it’s Easter Sunday and I’m back at the Chorizo Chronicles world headquarters.

Here are some photos of some of the Holy Week excitement out in Soria and Zaragoza.

Soria is a small city in Castilla y León on the Duero river. It’s not famous for much of anything, but if you go, you can take a very nice walk along the river in either direction. There’s actually a path following the Duero all the way to the Portuguese border (and possibly further, the river ends in Oporto). The Monasterio de San Saturio is very nice, build in a series of caves. You can see it behind the balding guy in the photo above.

Zaragoza is on the Ebro river. It’s name comes from the Roman emperor Cesar Augusta who founded the city around 2000 years ago. Soon afterwards, Saint James was preaching in the area, and one day while praying at the side of the river, the Virgin Mary appeared to him.

Of course, Mary was still alive and living in Jerusalem at the time, so she was using what wikipedia calls “bilocation” to appear far away in Hispania. (Apparently Catholics have a word for this.)

Later on, Columbus “discovered” America on Our Lady of the Pillar’s feast day, October 12. So she became the patron saint of all the Hispanic peoples of Spain and the New World.

Saint James is famous for the Camino de Santiago, which crosses the north of Spain all the way to Santiago and Finisterre. I don’t know how Iago gets transformed into James, but there’s certainly some reason for it. Somewhere.

Well, that’s it for today. Happy Holy Week, everyone. I’ve got a roast beef to put in the oven!

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About the Author Daniel

How did I end up in Spain? Why am I still here almost 20 years later? Excellent questions. With no good answer... Anyway, at some point I became a blogger, bestselling author and contributor to Lonely Planet. So there's that. Drop me a line, I'm happy to hear from you.

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