Lugo, walking the top of Lucus Augusti: a self-guided walk

By Alleytale

Walking the top of Lucus Augusti

The wall of Lucus Augusti went up in the later third century, and its ten gates tell the town's story: usually counted as five from Roman times, then five cut after 1853 as Lugo grew.

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The stops

1. 1Porta de Santiago

   A gate already stood here in Roman times; it is also known as the Porta do Pexigo, and until 1589 it was reserved for the canons, who used it to reach their orchards. In 1759 Bishop Izquierdo had it widened so that carriages could pass, and on its inner face a niche holds an image of Saint James along with the bishop's coat of arms. A ramp beside the gate leads up to the wall walk.

   

2. 2Porta Miñá

   This is the oldest of the wall's gates, certainly Roman in origin and the one changed least: a barrel vault and round arch guarded by two towers of granite and slate. It is also called the Porta do Carme, because it stands opposite the chapel that gives that district its name, and Miñá recalls the road out to the Miño river. In 1870 it was due to be pulled down for a new gate, but the town's money troubles saved it.

   

3. 3Porta do Bispo Odoario

   The last gate cut into the wall helped bring protection to the whole wall. In early 1921 the mayor had a section dynamited, without permission, to give the new Hospital de Santa María an entrance; the outcry sped up a protection process already under way, and the wall was declared a National Monument that April. The gate itself, 12 m wide and the tallest of the ten, was finished in 1928.

   

4. 4Porta Nova

   A gate stood here in Roman times, on the road out to Brigantium, a Roman name that sources tie to A Coruña or to Betanzos, and it was the main way out to the north until the Porta de San Fernando was opened in the 1850s. It has been known as the Nova, the new one, since at least the 12th century. The arch you see was built in 1900, and the stairs just inside lead up onto the wall, with a good view of the cathedral in the distance.

   

5. 5Porta Falsa

   Only 3.45 m wide, this is counted among the wall's original Roman gates, a postern of the kind called a posterula, made for military use rather than traffic. It was probably shut during the Middle Ages and reopened in 1602, though the opening only settled some twenty years later, and the mail once came and went by it. Today it is for pedestrians only, with a stair built at its entrance.

   

6. 6Porta da Estación

   This gate was opened in 1875 so that people could reach the new railway station, and it was rebuilt in 1921. It is 10 m wide and one of the four gates vehicles can still use, joining Rúa Castelao with the Praza de Santo Domingo. Stairs beside it lead up to the wall walk, close to where the Gran Teatro de Lugo once stood.

   

7. 7Porta de San Pedro

   The Camino Primitivo enters Lugo through this gate, and in Roman times the roads from Astorga and Braga came in by it. The arch was remodelled in 1781, and an inscription beside the city's coat of arms, with its crown and two rampant lions, records the start of that work. People throw coins onto the crown, and one that stays there is said to bring a wish true.

   

8. 8Porta do Bispo Izquierdo

   Opened in 1888 to give access to the new jail nearby, this is also called the Porta do Cárcere, the jail gate, and it carries the name of Bishop Izquierdo, counted among the city's benefactors. There were probably Roman stairs up to the wall where it now stands, which kept it narrow: at 4.32 m wide it is the smallest of the new gates. The architect was Nemesio Cobreros Cuevillas.

   

9. 9Casa dos Mosaicos

   This was a large Roman house, and what survives is now a museum on Rúa Doutor Castro, the street popularly called the Rúa das Docerías, right beside Praza Maior. Inside are mosaics, painted wall decoration, column bases and the remains of the hypocaust that heated the house, along with an audiovisual show that recreates life in it.

   

10. 10Catedral de Santa María

    Bishop Pedro III commissioned the present Romanesque cathedral from the master builder Raimundo de Monforte in 1129, and it was completed in 1273, replacing a church linked to Bishop Odoario in the mid-8th century. The main façade is Neoclassical, designed by Julián Sánchez Bort, with its two towers finished only in the late 19th century. The cathedral holds a papal privilege to keep the Holy Sacrament permanently exposed, and Lugo is known as the city of the Sacrament, with a chalice and host on its coat of arms.

    

11. 11Praza Maior de Lugo

    The largest square inside the walls is believed to stand where Roman Lucus Augusti had its amphitheatre. It took its present form in the 19th century, after a convent was pulled down in 1840, and its Baroque town hall, designed by Lucas Ferro Caaveiro and completed in 1744, is counted among the finest examples of Galician civil Baroque. The poet Luís Pimentel, who was born at number 15 and died at number 16, called it his town's drawing room.

    

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