Lugo is a provincial capital in Galicia, Spain. It is located in
eastern Galicia on the Rio Miño. Lugo is now one of the four
provincial capitals in the autonomous region of Galicia. Lugo is the
oldest city in Galicia. The main attraction and UNESCO World
Heritage Site is the Roman fortifications.
The city walls of
Lugo are the only fortifications from Roman times that have been
preserved completely and completely intact over a length of 2,200 m.
It looks the same today as it did in the 4th century. It is the
best-preserved structure of Western Roman military architecture.
Even today you can still walk around the old town on the top of the
wall. On November 30, 2000 it was declared a World Heritage Site by
UNESCO.
The Romans called the provincial capital Lugo in
northern Spain Lucus Augusti. She was from the year 14 BC. a
military camp of Emperor Augustus. The defensive wall survived the
Roman Empire unscathed. It is the most important cultural asset of
the small Galician town endowed with numerous other historical
treasures. Due to important mineral deposits in the area, Lucus
Augusti was an administrative center and an important junction of
trade routes.
The 8 to 12 m high city wall was built from 263
AD. Lugo had to defend himself against the first barbarian raids
from the north. The Suevi were able to enter 460 AD under Hermerico
through an open city gate. The citizens had left the city gates open
because of the Easter celebrations. From then on, conquerors came
and went in Lugo. The Visigoths expelled the Suevi. In 714 Lugo was
sacked by the Moors, but in 755 Alfonso I recaptured the city. In
968 it was taken by the Normans on their way to the Mediterranean.
Under the Castilian King Alfonso VIII (1155-1214), the Christian
population finally believed themselves safe, but the Almanzor's
Moorish troops conquered the four to seven meter thick walls. The
wall was damaged in the fighting. The defense towers were partially
integrated into the wall. Stairs and ramps led to them and to the
top of the wall. In the 16th century, breaches were made in the wall
into which new houses were built. Today there are ten city gates, 5
Roman, 5 others from 1853 and 1921. The gates of Roman origin are
the oldest gate Puerta del Carmen, Puerta de Santiago, Puerta Nueva
(remodeled at the end of the 19th century), Puerta Toledana and
Puerta Falsa. The building material of the city wall is mainly slate
and granite found in the area. The city wall covers a total of 34.4
hectares. In 1921 the city walls of Lugo were declared a National
Monument. It was no longer allowed to be structurally modified. But
in 1971 it was decided to demolish the newer civilian buildings in
the wall. The refurbishment removed anything alienated from the
original purpose and restored the walls to what they once were: a
typical Roman defensive structure.
Sightseeing features
1 Roman city wall (Muralla romana de Lugo).
The main attraction of the city.
Churches, mosques, synagogues,
temples
1 Lugo Cathedral (Catedral de Santa María de Lugo). The
cathedral on the Plaza Santa Maria was built in late Romanesque style
from 1129. It stands close to the Roman city wall. From here you have a
beautiful view of the church. Due to extensions and additions, you can
find different architectural styles today. The main facade was created
by Sanchez Bort in a neo-classical style. But there are also Gothic and
Baroque style elements.
2 San Francisco Convent (Iglesia de San
Pedro). Since 1957 the provincial museum. The monastery was built in the
Gothic style in the 15th century. A collection of paintings, ceramics,
coins, clocks and some golden relics from Celtic times are on display in
the museum. In 1990 the building was expanded. A church is attached to
the monastery.
streets and squares
Praza Mayor (plaza mayor de
Lugo) commons. The most important square in Lugo's old town. The
rectangular, leafy square is close to the cathedral. In this square is
the Casa Consistorial (City Hall), as well as other interesting
buildings with cafes and restaurants.
Praza de Santo Domingo, in the
city center.
Praza de Santa Maria, by the Cathedral.
parks
Rosalia de Castro commons park. The park was named after the Galician
poetess. It was built in 1925 and is 23 hectares in size. It is outside
the city walls near the Santiago city gate.
Antiquity
Lugo was founded as a Roman camp under the command of
Cayo Antistio Veto , probably on the site of an old castro , 1920 in a
campaign with the aim of annexing the northwest of the peninsula to the
Roman Empire at the time of Augustus , around the year 25 a.m. C. Thus,
in the name of the emperor , Paulo Fabio Máximo founded Lucus Augustion
this military camp, and from the year 50 the expansion of the city
began, with the settlement of the indigenous population of the nearby
castros. Subsequently, the city became an important urban nucleus,
representative of the Roman culture and way of life, as can be seen in
the remains found in the ancient city, corresponding to temples, pools,
baths , coins or mosaics .
Traditionally it was considered that
the two perpendicular roads that made up all Roman cities (the cardo and
the decumano ) followed the route of the current streets of San Pedro
and Rúa Nova, which intersected in the Plaza del Campo, forming the
forum . However, recent archaeological discoveries show that there was a
large public square that occupied from Calle Doctor Castro (called "de
las Dulcerías") to Calle del Progreso, including a large part of the
current Praza de Santo Domingo, which has led to reconsider the
aforementioned theory. A multitude of pieces are preserved, Roman sites
and mosaics that still appear today, especially every time works are
carried out in the old part of the city.
In the 3rd century the
city was the capital of the conventus lucensis , one of the three
administrative entities into which Gallaecia was divided . Between the
years 260 and 325, at the beginning of the Low Roman Empire , the city
was surrounded by a wall . This wall, with a circumference of 2,266 m
and declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2000, is the only Roman
fortification in the world that preserves its entire perimeter today,
and surrounds the center of the city, the cathedral , the provincial
museum , the town halland other buildings of interest. These remains are
joined by the monumental complex of Santa Eulalia de Bóveda , where its
Pompeian paintings stand out .
Middle Ages
After the arrival
and capture of the city by the Suevi in 460, the Council of Lugo took
place , in which the Lugo church was elevated to a metropolitan see, the
bishops of Astorga becoming dependent on it , Britonia , Iria Flavia ,
Orense and Tuy . In Visigothic Hispania it was the episcopal seat of the
Catholic Church , suffragan of the Archdiocese of Braga , which included
the ancient Roman province of Gallaecia in the Diocese of Hispania. Its
historical role began to decline with the founding of Oviedo , the
discovery of the supposed sepulcher of the Apostle Santiago in
Compostela and the restoration of Braga. During this period, Lugo lost a
large part of its population, beginning to recover in the 10th century .
In 714 the Muslims arrived in Lugo , and in the year 741 Alfonso I
occupied the city, without resistance, and Bishop Odoario, finding the
city in a lamentable state, ordered to bury the Roman remains and
rebuild the city, both aware of the importance that it will acquire
within the Kingdom in these years, since it was the only metropolitan
Church reconquered and the only city in all of Christian Hispania during
the 8th century and the first half of the 9th century . In this way, the
Roman city became an ecclesiastical locus, the nucleus of the current
town.
In the year 842 a large Galician army met in the city to
conquer Oviedo and raise Ramiro I to the throne . Alfonso VI grants the
bishopric the dominion of the city in 1088. In 1129 the construction of
the Romanesque cathedral began , designed by the master Raimundo de
Monforte and dedicated to Santa María , called “Virgen de los Ojos
Grandes”.
In the 8th century , the city was a place of passage
for pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela and was the head of the stage
of the so-called "Primitive Route" of the Camino de Santiago , and
during the Middle Ages it was also a pilgrimage center, since the
cathedral He had the special privilege, which he still retains today, of
exposing a consecrated host to the public twenty-four hours a day; In
1669 the Offering of the Kingdom of Galicia to the Sacrament was
established, which is still celebrated today. Already in the 18th
century , Lugo was granted the privilege of organizing the fairs of San
Froilán, specifically in 1754.
In 1312 the inhabitants of the
city of Lugo, of which the infante Felipe de Castilla was a commender ,
revolted against their bishop, Juan Fernández, since he had tried to
recover the lordship of the city. For this reason, the inhabitants of
Lugo attacked the episcopal palace, captured its garrison and wounded
the bishop, who refused to give them the flag and the keys to the city
and was expelled from the city. The lawsuit was brought before King
Ferdinand IV of Castile, who ruled in favor of Bishop Juan Fernández and
against the council of Lugo. In addition, the king ordered the infante
Felipe and Alfonso Suárez de Deza, Mayor of Galicia, to enforce the
verdict that he had issued to the inhabitants of Lugo. However, both
characters delayed compliance with the agreement. The Courts of Burgos
in 1315 ratified the ruling given by Ferdinand IV of Castileon the
lawsuit between the Lugo city council and its bishop, Juan Fernández. In
these Cortes it was arranged that the infante Felipe and Alfonso Suárez
de Deza enforce the ruling issued by the Cortes themselves, but in 1316
the residents, in order to oppose what was agreed in the Cortes, handed
over the lordship of the city to the infante Felipe, who occupied it
without difficulty. At the same time, the infante Felipe de Castilla
ordered the erection of a fortress with two towers in the city of Lugo
to defend the people of Lugo from the attacks of his own prelate, and he
allowed the council of Lugo to continue governing the city.
Modern and contemporary age
During the Modern Age the city
experienced a certain boom although nearby cities such as Mondoñedo or
Ribadeo disputed supremacy, due to the commercial importance of the
first and the industrial strength of the second. It was not until the
division of the Spanish state into provinces in 1833 and the creation of
the councils when the town was designated as the provincial capital, a
decision motivated above all by the central location of the walled city,
and it became the most important among those that today are part of the
province of Lugo , which meant a constant growth in population and
extension. Said boom was reinforced with the arrival of the firstrailway
to the city in 1875. In addition, the fairs of San Froilán acquired
extraordinary economic importance which, together with the railway, made
Lugo the main cattle trade center on the peninsula.
On April 2,
1846, with the pronouncement of Colonel Miguel Solís , the uprising of
1846 against President Narváez began in Lugo , which would end with the
execution of "the martyrs of Carral". In 1908, what is currently the
only newspaper in the city, El Progreso, was founded . In 1910, the
Catholic-oriented newspaper La Voz de la Verdad appeared , now defunct.
In 1905, Ángel López Pérez became mayor, who led the city for seven
terms (until 1930), a period during which he carried out major reforms
in the city, some of which were highly discussed. In 1950 one of the
greatindustrial slaughterhouses in the country.
In 1971, a
decree was approved that declared the demolition of the buildings that
were attached to the Roman wall to be of public utility, and the
demolition of the 130 buildings and 1,429 sheds that were attached to
the wall on the outside and prevented observation began. of the monument