Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Jul 22, 2008 - 01:17 PM castileandleon

The legions of the great Roman general Scipio encircled and took the Celtiberian town of Numantia in 133 BC, but now it is the even more brutally unstoppable forces of greed and speculation which threaten it. The archaeological site of Numantia, Numancia in Spanish, lies in the gorgeous, wild countryside of the province of Soria, only a stone's throw from the provincial capital. It is now surrounded by planned development including an unneeded industrial estate, hundreds of houses, and a private cemetery with one of those dreadful factory-sized funeral parlours found in Spain. There is a dim glimmer of hope that this unspoilt landscape might be saved from the blight of modernity, in the form of the Salvemos Numancia campaign, which has strong allies, including UNESCO and Spain's most important distance-learning institution, the UNED. In addition, some of the land being expropriated belongs to the Marichalars, an old, aristocratic Basque family, and they are not amused.

The Siege of Numantia gave the Spanish language its "Numantine resistance," for the Numantines preferred death to slavery and hurled themselves en masse over a cliff rather than surrender (or at least, that's the legend). As if that were not sufficient literary association, the Monte de las Ánimas (the Mountain of Souls), on which the cemetery is planned is the location for a literally terrific legend and horror story by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spain's Edgar Allen Poe.

The most sinister part of the mew Siege of Numantia corresponds to the planned industrial estate, which will take up an area equivalent to 62 football pitches, including a wetlands habitat to a number of protected species. And no-one seems able to justify its development or even explain it. Soria is already being provided with a new industrial estate of some 274 hectares, nearly 700 acres, which it is estimated will satisfy the city's needs in this respect for the next thirty years. And this has really annoyed the Marichalars, who think that the plan is to expropriate the land, then change its planning category to "housing," so making it much more valuable.

Salvemos Soria and the UNED are collecting signatures in support of a bid to have Numantia declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and keep the predatory developers at bay. They say you will be able to sign their petition electronically at a future date - for now, you can download the pdf here, and send it back to:
SecretarÍa de Historia Antigua de la UNED
Senda del Rey, 7
28040 Madrid
with as many signatures as you can raise

More information:
Salvemos Soria
UNED - Nuevo Cerco a Numancia