Aside from Antonio Machado, it's clear that the 'Soria effect' also deeply influenced another of the great geniuses of world literature, although, as is often the case with genius, he wasn't widely recognized in his time. We're referring to another poet, also of Sevillian origin, like Machado—parallel lives, as Plutarch would say—whose rhymes, according to the art critic Gustave Doré, reminded him of an accordion played by an angel: Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.
It's not known exactly when the first of the trips that the Bécquer brothers, Gustavo and Valeriano, made to this ancient Numantian capital on the Duero frontier took place. But it is estimated that it was around 1859 when the poet, who already had family in the city of Soria, met Casta Esteban, whom he married in the spring of 1861. From this union, a son was born, also on schedule, in the spring of the following year, whom they baptized Gregorio Gustavo Adolfo.
During these stays, and before retiring to the Aragonese monastery of Santa María de Veruela and the surrounding area of the mythical Moncayo mountain for health reasons, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer had the opportunity to visit some of the most inspiring places in a land where legend and tradition have always blended seamlessly with everyday life.
These places, with their names, such as Noviercas—the birthplace of his son—Pozalmoro—with its interesting Romanesque church—Almenar—the birthplace of Leonor, Antonio Machado's first wife, located on the Aragonese Way of St. James, and home to the fabulous Sanctuary of Our Lady of La Llana—or Beratón, a small border town near Ágreda and the Moncayo mountain range, and another of the reference points for popular traditions related to fairies, ghostly apparitions, fantastic hunts, and metamorphoses that rival those of the Latin poet Ovid, inspired some of his best-known and most unforgettable legends, such as "The Green Eyes" and "The White Doe."
But without a doubt, the most inspiring place in Soria, the one whose cloister, with its Amalfi-style design, makes it unique within Spanish Romanesque architecture and which, like Machado's work, "La Tierra de Alvargonzález," also blends reality and legend, was none other than this battered 12th-century monastery dedicated to Saint John.
It sits beside the banks of the Duero River and faces a desolate mountain where the ancient Celtiberians danced to the beat of drums in their little-known rites. If we add to this remarkable discovery the numerous legends about Templars that he learned, possibly from his uncle Francisco Domínguez Bécquer, who lived in Soria, we have the necessary elements to create one of the most chilling and internationally renowned supernatural tales of all time: "El Monte de las Ánimas" (The Mountain of Souls).
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