Lugo

Maria at the bus station had kindly written down the bus times for us so shortly before 9 am found us walking up the hill the short distance to the station to catch the bus to Lugo.

Lugo is one of the ancient capitals of Gallicia and has been a significant town since before the times of the Romans. Founded circa 14 BC, The Romans occupied the town and fortified it in the reign of Augustus at the end of the 3rd century AD. The walls are the only ones to be preserved in their entirety in the whole of the Roman Empire.

The bus ride alone is worth the 19€ fare as it swoops into the deeply forested mountains.

 Closely following the meandering river initially it soon began a fairly hair raising climb into the lush hills.

The journey was around 100 kilometres and there were several detours to other small towns. At each stop the driver had a pressing need to visit a local cafe, apparently to get change as the half a dozen passengers that had boarded so far had cleaned him out!

The bus station is just outside the old walled town and our first view of them was from the point of view of an aggressor so to speak. They are certainly impressive and far from being a ruin.

We wandered into the old town and found a delightful collection of old buildings and leafy squares. We asked a shopkeeper to direct us to the tourist information and were soon armed with our all important map.

As you walk around the city you discover covered archeological digs, they have been glassed over for passers by to view, the one above is a tiled bath, part of a bath house complex that still exists several metres underground. It adds to the sense of how long the city has been occupied when it's bones are on display

Built above these remains are the medieval buildings such as the Cathedral, seen here from the back. We had a coffee in a small street near the Cathedral  watching a fountain catch the bright sunlight and enjoying free tapas, little sandwiches of meat and fish.

We couldn't resist a look on the Cathedral before tackling the walls so walked to a side entrance to glimpse inside.

We are constantly surprised by the richness of the ornate decoration in Spanish churches and this was no exception.

The brightly lit main alter was surrounded by smaller chapels that radiated off and was crowned above by fantastic roof murals, even the stone supporting columns were painted, along with the stained glass the effect was stunning.

One of the chapels seemed to be drawing a crowd, it was dedicated to ' the virgin of the ' ollos grandes ' or large eyes. The photo above is of the lady herself. I'm afraid all available information was in Gallician and so beyond my ability to translate.

We walked out of the front of the Cathedral and for the first time got to admire its full grandeur. It is a short walk across its portico to get to one of the main gates through the wall and it is possible to access the top of the fortification and walk around its entire length.

It was very hot and I mentioned to Lynne that if we began to fade at any point we would descend back into the cooler narrow streets of the town. It's about Two and a half kilometres to walk the whole length. As we walked we had no worries about mosquitoes as crowds of swifts were swooping up and around on the thermals, one brushed so close I felt a wing tip touch my arm.

There are few places that provide any shade, this magnolia tree was one. The flowers are huge and we couldn't identify it at first until we saw one labelled in a sculpture park.

The walls provide good views back into the old town of Lugo, which is very attractive.

We did make it all the way round and soon the Cathedral towers were in sight once again.

A last view from the top of the wall showed us another dig hidden behind a cafe, I believe this may have been barracks for the Roman legionaries.

As we had walked the walls the Spanish obsession with graffiti had evidenced itself, however I found this particular one amusing and grammatically correct unlike the incident in Monty Pythons ' life of Brian ' on which its undoubtably based. ( it says " Romans go home")

Lunch was called for and we dined on a park bench on cooked meat and cheese.

We had brought a picnic lunch, had we realised how easy it would be to eat free tapas all day we may not have bothered!

Out lunch spot was near the small municipal museum which was housed in an old monastery.

The cloisters were a cool and peaceful place to be after the furnace of the walls.

The museum turned out to be very extensive and had an eclectic mix of historical artefacts and art. Apart from the cloisters photography was only allowed on the kitchen which was a reproduction of the monastery kitchens in typical Gallician style.

 

As you walked around the cloisters there were collections of excavated stone tablets statues and inscriptions . There were also some noisy birds swooping in an out of a small tree I didn't recognise the species of bird but they looked like small finches..

The extensive art galleries were also a cool distraction. After leaving the museum we bumped into David and  Aileen from ' Cassis ' who were in the marina with us and compared notes. David mentioned a dig by the Cathedral that we should really see.they had set out even earlier than us catching the first bus at 7.30 am, planning to catch the 4.45pm back and we're on their way to walk around the walls so we didn't keep them chatting too long. We wandered back towards the Cathedral and the dig that David had mentioned.

But first we needed a refreshing beer which as usual came with free tapas, the repast above consists of grilled peppers, fish and chips ( I kid you not ) and a bowl of crisps.

We walked back to the impressive looking new building protecting the site of a Roman villa and temple to Mithras.

 This is housed in a concrete and glass structure that people often mistake for part of the University, however groups of 20 or so can descend into the dig and walk around on walkways after watching an informative video presentation. Being English we got to wander around alone while the Spanish group watched the video then we were invited to watch it in English. The lady in charge was very helpful. Photography isn't allowed so I sneaked the above image. Fascinating to see a real Roman villa with its tiled floor and wall paintings intact after 2000 years.have I mentioned that all the museums and exhibits in Lugo are free?

We had decided to catch the late bus ( 8 o'clock ) so wandered about looking at the shops etc. Waiting until an archeological dig opened outside the city walls, still on Spanish time here, open at 5 o'clock!

The city is really interesting and everywhere you look there is something else to see, among the many treasures to be found are a little shop that specialises in selling string.......... 

If your interest in history isn't yet diminished you can also find these little Windows that show even more of the structure lying beneath the surface, in this case some Roman plumbing!

Outside of the town was where the Roman tradesmen set up shop and in another building over a dig it's possible to see the remains of a pottery kiln and a pool associated with the cemetery.

This is the bottom of the kiln ( where the fire was lit ) industry was obviously sited outside the city walls as the smoke and pollution were less of a problem and the inhabitants of the Necropolis next door didn't mind!

We had a last coffee ( and free tapas ) in one of the leafy squares before catching the bus home, we were very tired having had a full day of history.

Lugo is a fascinating place and to be honest we barely scratched the surface ( if you will excuse the pun ) we caught the bus on time and arrived back at 9.30 pm followed by an early night . It had been a ' grand day out'. Lugo could easily occupy a week of your time there is a huge amount to see and do.