“This first novel, so poor in materials, so simple, so humble, so moving, is the one which is most in danger today because of depopulation, but we are indebted to it, all the subsequent novel is indebted to it: the one of the great monasteries, that of collegiate churches and cathedrals. We must therefore ensure that it does not disappear. These words do not come from now. They were spoken by José María Pérez “Peridis” in the program The keys to the novel of Spanish television… more than two decades ago. The voice-over of the famous architect and popularizer allowed us to observe several examples of this poorer and simpler Romanesque style. Among the images, the south wall, the apse, the portal and the interior of the Church of San Bartolomé, in La Barbolla. Unfortunately, this prophecy came true: a year after the roof collapsed, nothing has changed in the uninhabited town located half an hour from the town of Soria. Ah, except for one thing: today the ruin is still the ruin.
The cats fed by the last resident of La Barbolla, the farmer Lorenzo Chico, became the only guardians of the building opening onto a canal. Luis Carlos Pastor, spokesperson for the “Roman Without Roof” collective, regretfully inspects the church among the rubble of the (partially collapsed) south wall, as if he were visiting the grave of a recently deceased relative. “We are a little disappointed,” admits this retired history professor. It is not in vain that the association he leads was founded in 2021 to fight against all odds so that San Bartolomé does not become another of those forty medieval buildings in the battered province of Soria whose roof has ended up collapsing, due to depopulation and disinterest. and apathy. Neither public institutions nor the owner of the property, the bishopric of Osma-Soria, have so far done anything to prevent yet another stone corpse.
The chronology of La Barbolla confirms the sad story of forgotten heritage: no one cares. During the night of November 8 to 9, a crack opened in the roof which, since that date, has opened the doors wide to water, destruction and looting. “The first lootings were carried out by the bishopric itself, which took away the baptismal font, the font, the bells and a chest where the brotherhoods of the True Cross and the Child Jesus kept the candles,” laments the pastor.
With an interesting diversity of baptismal fonts in the province of Soria, the former neighbors and descendants of La Barbolla are particularly unhappy with the transfer of theirs to the town on which they administratively depend. A few kilometers away, the ritual piece “rests” in the church of Quintana Redonda. Those who took advantage of the current vulnerability of the building, still open due to collapses, salvaged pieces of old altarpieces and panels. They did not even pity a coat rack where it was traditional to hang votive offerings (offerings), mainly hair.
No progress after seven months
Seven months ago, officials from the Regional Government of Castilla y León and the Diocese of Osma-Soria met with members of the “Hispania Nostra” and “Romanico Sin Techo” associations to try to find an effective solution to the situation at hand. San Bartolomé. . The Minister of Culture of Castilla y León, Gonzalo Santonja, left a riddle on this subject: “I hope that a solution will be found, which will have to come from the owners and from society.” He was referring to the convenience for the residents of La Barbolla, where there is no one, to raise at least part of the budget to build a new roof.
For its part, the bishopric of Soria only confirmed this meeting, with an ambiguous statement. “During this meeting of the bishopric, the Románico Sinhozo association was authorized to carry out a micro-sponsorship to raise funds with the aim of consolidating the ruin of Barbolla”, that is all the delegate said Diocesan Heritage Officer, José Sala, on several occasions. questions from this media.
However, Luis Carlos Pastor denies the worst and assures that the Church has left the issue in no man’s land. “Seven months have passed since then and we have received no communication,” he says. “No one wants to do anything for this heritage, and there are even people in the city who are starting to think that the best thing would be to take a backhoe and destroy what is left,” he adds. Perhaps so as not to suffer for the future of his memories.
Pastor is aware of the premonition that people like Peridis formulated decades ago about a heritage exposed to the drama of depopulation, but he rejects that bad omens must necessarily come true, however complicated. “On the program The keys to the novel“Peridis said it was a miracle that a bow from Berlanga de Duero (also Soria) did not fall on his head, but the association there managed to recover this and other assets,” he says.
Historically, the medieval heritage of Soria has carried the label of “poor novel”. For experts, this is precisely the differentiating element that makes it necessary to recover and conserve churches like that of San Bartolomé, in La Barbolla. “When we talk about rural romance, the most obvious case is perhaps that of Soria, because its churches perfectly define these moments of repopulation or reconquest and how at that time, the 12th century, small villages were built with their churches”, illustrates Pedro. .Luis Huerta.
The historian, member of the team of the Santa María la Real de Aguilar de Campoo Foundation, was a documentary director for the informative program of Spanish television more than two decades ago. “The work for the Encyclopedia of Soria and The Keys of the Novel allowed us to know the full dimension of the novel of Soria, one of the provinces with the greatest number of testimonies, but we were also aware of the danger to which it was faced due to depopulation,” he recalls.
The purest novel
“The advantage we found,” Huerta continues, “is that it was the purest novel; “It is always said that the novel is the child of poverty, because it was preserved where there were fewer resources to reform it.” A barely altered testimony in many cases, where later styles like Gothic or Baroque have not knocked on the door of humble temples that move, precisely, because of their extreme simplicity.
“Only the apse part is in cut stone, the roof is in wood and the walls are built in cut stone (a system of laying smaller and less careful cut stones), masonry or lime formwork and made of stone,” defines the expert. “They are fragile buildings in height, but the walls are solid and remain intact,” he describes. Although he speaks of the rural novel of Soria in general, Pedro Luis Huerta seems to describe the case of La Barbolla, where the apse seems unbreakable, but one of the walls opened and seriously collapsed, after the collapse of the wooden roof. .
This type of construction, somewhat rushed, responded to the need to build towns and villages in a short time. The downside of this practice can be the disappearance of a singular heritage which, sometimes, refuses to blend fully into the landscape. It seems that some of these temples have chosen to blend into the horizon, there, indelibly, without any help. “The disappearance of these buildings is totally unfair: La Barbolla must be preserved as an example of the essence of the purest Romanesque style, which defines a society and a very particular historical moment, and is located in an environment where it stands integrates perfectly with the civil and military architecture,” defends Huerta.
And to avoid a contagion or a domino effect (which would end up destroying dozens of these buildings), from the Santa María la Real Foundation, Pedro Luis Huerta calls for replicating the successful projects carried out in the Castilian-Leonese provinces such as Palencia, Burgos. , Zamora or Soria itself. “Projects that cover a group of temples require, instead of isolated actions, a global plan that is broader than specific interventions,” he explains. For its part, the “Roman Without Roof” group still wants to believe that the situation in La Barbolla will eventually be reversed. “Until the walls come down and a machine comes in, there is always hope; The work is expensive, but it can be done on time,” estimates Luis Carlos Pastor. Even if this same hope is accompanied by bitterness: “Sometimes I think the authorities want this to disappear and, thus, one less problem for them. »
