Camino rest - two days in Lugo

21-22.4.2013

Lugo is a very pleasant and beautiful city, and its old town is surrounded by the longest extant Roman city walls in the world (constructed between AD 263 and 276). The path around top of the walls was full of strollers and runners every day, from early in the morning until late at night. I walked the whole 2.1km circumference of it - then walked part of it again - and never tired of looking at it. 

La Catedral de Santa María (begun in 1129) originally was built in the Romanesque style (and some of that survives - painted arches and the tomb of a prelate), but it expanded throughout the centuries and contains Gothic, Baroque, Rococo and Neo-classical elements. It felt ancient and holy, and I found myself drawn back to it repeatedly while I was in Lugo. 

Majestas Domini (Christ in Majesty) over one transept entrance.

High altar from the choir.

I happened into the Cathedral at the start of an early mass in one of the apse chapels on Sunday morning, and I lowered the median age of the worshippers by about 40 years. It was a quiet little mass that I will never forget. This is the ancient priest tidying up afterward. 

Transept and crossing.

The surviving bit of the Romanesque basilica.

Praza Maior (the main square of the old city).

Casa do Concello (provincial government building) on Praza Maior.

Rúa San Pedro.

Rúa Calvo Sotelo.

The courtyard of O Candid Mesón Pulpería, up against the Roman wall, where I ate the best pulpos a la gallega (Galician-style octopus) of the trip. 

 

Portomarín (about 30km south of Lugo). is the town where Antonio Rivas (my great-grandfather) was born (and one of the traditional stops along the most well-known and -traveled route, the Camino Francés), and I took a bus down from Lugo to see it on Monday. The medieval town and Roman bridge Antonio would have known were flooded by the reservoir when the Río Minho was dammed in the 1960s. Portomarín was relocated on higher ground, just above the flooded old town. Though Antonio's town is gone, it was very moving to see the surrounding landscapes that he would have known well. The foundations of the old town an the Roman bridge are under the lake here.

Some of Antonio's Portomarín does survive. The most historic buildings, including this 12th-century Templar fortress-church of San Xoán, were moved stone-by-stone to the new site.