Its location, at the top of a hill beneath which the old main road connecting Segovia with Soria runs, forming a curve, not so sharp, after all, as to be compared to a horse's horseshoe, nor to the famous crossbow shape that the Duero River takes at the Hermitage of Saint Saturium, once illuminating the enchanted romanticism of the poet Antonio Machado, makes it a metaphorical beacon, welcoming and, at the same time, bidding farewell to a multitude of travelers, few of whom, truly, make a stop along their way to dedicate the gift of a few miserable minutes of contemplation.
The same did not occur in the past with those itinerant brotherhoods of medieval stonemasons, who, probably originating from that sovereign Soria where they had left unparalleled examples of their professional mastery—let's take, for example, temples such as Saint Michael in San Esteban de Gormaz, Our Lady of Rivero, or Saint Dominic—continued to leave their unparalleled mark, establishing the foundations of their wisdom in this land of Segovia, with temples that, like this one, stand out for their beauty, harmony, balance, and proportion.
Nor did the same occur centuries later with those intrepid travelers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who, like the theosophist Mario Roso de Luna, saw, precisely in this solitary ensemble of sacred architecture, the elongated shadow of a medieval order of chivalry, that of the Knights Templar, behind its excellent symmetry.
And possibly, there must be some truth in such subjective impressions, for, if we apply Nietzsche's original phrase, it is perhaps the thoughts acquired through wandering that have value and offer some justice to this solitary hermitage, which, under the patronage of Saint Mary, is the first thing a visitor perceives upon entering a beautiful Castilian village that proudly bears the name of Riaza.
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