"History
Previous situation
The first origins are found in a 14th century document by Bishop Don Lope, which states that the Council met in a house located in the Plaza de As Cortiñas. Although the first clear document on this subject dates back to the 16th century , which clearly states the place where the sessions of the civil authority were held. It is noted that the Council was held in one of the towers of the wall called la Muriega. This construction was also used for the election of the deputy of the common people, the deputy of supplies and the holding of public councils.
In 1546 it is documented that this construction was in poor condition, forcing the transfer of sessions to another building.
Old Town Halls
In 1570 the Council signed an agreement with the Bishopric by which the civil authority ceded the place "do Canedo", in exchange it received the ownership of the houses of Feira Vella or Casas Grandes. The council intended to build its headquarters, to achieve this the king granted them the possibility of collecting a tax on the trade of wine, oil and meat mainly. The work was commissioned to the stonemason Pedro de Artiaga.
It was located on the same site where the current one is located, with a main façade of carved stone, with a mannerist character, local influences and palatial architecture from Santiago with the use of arches supported by columns. Originally it consisted of five openings, the central one and the one on the far right were French windows. However, in a 17th century document there is talk of protecting the six windows of the building from the sun during celebrations.
In 1587 Juan de Arce Solórzano was hired to carry out a series of works. A few years later, due to the absence of a balcony on the main façade, a wooden structure was built so that Queen Mariana of Neuburg could attend the city's festivities.
At the beginning of the 18th century , the councillors of Lugo sent information to the Royal Council of Philip V about the ruined state of the municipal headquarters. The king complied with the request and ordered a study of the costs. Brother Gabriel de las Casas was in charge of preparing a project with the approval of the masters of Orense and Santiago, Francisco de Castro y Canseco and Fernando de Casas y Novoa .
Current building
The restoration project was put on hold until 1735, when Mayor José Montenegro das Seijas revived the need to build a new town hall. A report was commissioned from Lucas Ferro Caaveiro and Pedro da Silva, which revealed the poor condition of the façade, which was propped up and threatened to collapse.
The project for both the exterior and interior renovation was entrusted to the first of them. The priority given to the renovation allowed Ferro Caaveiro's plans to be approved in February 1736 and the demolition of the previous building to be allowed in order to build the new one. Ferro Caaveiro proposed to extend the surface by adding two more rooms to the floor, for which a garden bordering the rear and western part of the previous building was purchased. The work continued well into the following decade. Although the date 1738 appears on the façade, it was not until 1744 that it was completed.
The Municipal Palace
The main façade of the town hall has a two-story structure. The lower one has a portico with eight semicircular arches supported by nine pillars.
On the ground floor, the eight French windows arranged above the lower arches lead to two wrought iron balconies supported by decorated corbels .
The plaques on the façade give us a link with the Baroque of Santiago de Compostela. The decoration of the façade is very similar to that of the Novoa houses in the Ojos Grandes chapel. The façade is completed with shields and a moulded cornice with six gargoyles on six pinnacles. This composition is completed with two single-body towers at the corners.
The comb in the central section has a bordered cartouche that points to José Vaamonde, city councilor in 1738.
Extension and clock tower
When Ferro Caaveiro 's works were finished, it was necessary to carry out minor repairs. In 1759, the damaged arch of the courtyard entrance was restored. In 1834, the architect Alejo Andrade Yañez remade the façade's roof, as its condition threatened the main façade. In the first half of the 19th century , the façade was ordered to be whitewashed in an attempt to improve its external appearance, but maintenance problems due to the rain led to the façade being returned to its exposed stonework. The original wrought iron balconies donated by Bishop Francisco Izquierdo y Távira were replaced in the 1970s.
But the greatest intervention on the complex took place when, due to the increase in administrative work, it became necessary to enlarge the headquarters. In 1862, the project for its extension was taken on. For this purpose, the houses at numbers 2 and 4 of the Plazuela de la Nova were purchased, which, together with the secondary education institute, provided the necessary land. The extension plans were signed by the municipal architect Angel Cosín y Martín, who was also a member of the Academia de San Fernando . This construction consists of a smooth whitewashed masonry wall and ashlar in the frames of the openings, plinths, corners and the line that divides the two floors. This sober appearance places it within the neoclassical spirit.
Once the work was finished, it was clear that a basic element was needed for a building that represented the civil power of a provincial capital. The session of January 1, 1865 reflected the need for:
(...) to install a clock on the façade of the Town Hall, either because the one in the cathedral is almost always ahead, or because, following the towns of some importance, Lugo cannot do without this improvement without lowering itself from the consideration it deserves.
In this observation, the rivalry between civil and ecclesiastical powers to control the population is perfectly visible. Economic difficulties forced the project to be postponed until 1871 and the design was entrusted to the municipal draughtsman Luis Vázquez. Before its construction was completed, faults were detected that made its demolition necessary.
In parallel with the rebuilding, a clock was purchased in London. Curiously, this clock was originally intended for the cathedral of Malaga . After successive delays and having been taught by the failure of 1871, the architect Nemesio Cobreros y Cuevillas was commissioned to create a more ambitious project than the previous one, with the only requirement being height. This requirement made the architect give up placing the tower on the façade. He opted to delay its location, supporting it on four pillars, two on the back wall and two in the inner courtyard. The works began in 1873 and were finished the following year. The clock came into operation coincided with the passage of the Corpus Christi procession through the main square, highlighting the rivalries between the two powers."
(
visit link)
LUGO
"Lugo is the only city in the world to be surrounded by completely intact Roman walls, which reach a height of 10 to 15 metres (33 to 49 feet) along a 2,117-metre (6,946 ft) circuit ringed with 71 towers. The walk along the top is continuous around the circuit and features ten gates. The 3rd century Roman walls, the only one of its kind in the world, are protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The city's historic bridge over the Miño is also essentially of Roman date. The city of Lugo is along the Camino Primitivo path of the Camino de Santiago.
Population
The population of the city in 2018 was 98,026 inhabitants, which has been growing constantly since the first census in 1842, despite the fact that the rest of the province is losing population dramatically. The population of the city in 2014 was 98,560 inhabitants (45,948 men and 52,612 women). From INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística).
By April 2020, the population had grown to 99,638.[3] Reaching 100,000 inhabitants is one of the goals of the city Mayor, Lara Méndez.
In 2010 there were 5,373 foreigners living in the city, representing 5.5% of the total population. The main nationalities are Colombians (18%), Moroccans (12%) and Brazilians (11%).[4]
By language, according to 2008 data, 47.37% of the population speaks always or mainly in Galician, 52.63% speaks always or mainly in Spanish.
Geography
Lugo map.
The town lies on a hill surrounded by the rivers Miño, Rato and Chanca. The difference in altitude between the city centre and the river banks is considerable: the former being at an altitude of 465 meters above sea level, whilst the Miño River Walk is at an altitude of only 364 metres (1,194 feet). The municipality of Lugo is the second largest in Galicia, with 329.78 square kilometres (127.33 sq mi) and 59 parishes. The outline of the city was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO on 7 November 2002, this being the most important recognition at international level regarding the conservation of landscapes and habitats of this Atlantic European region.
The area has been divided into more than 54 villages: Adai, Bacurín, Bascuas, Bazar, Benade, Bocamaos, Bóveda, O Burgo, Calde, Camoira, Carballido, Coeo, Coeses, Cuíña, Esperante, Gondar, Labio, Lamas, Lugo, Mazoi, Meilán, Monte de Meda, Muxa, Ombreiro, Orbazai, O Outeiro das Camoiras, Pedreda, Pías, Piúgos, Poutomillos, Prógalo, Recimil, Ribas de Miño, Romeán, Rubiás, Saa, San Mamede dos Anxos, San Martiño de Piñeiro, San Pedro de Mera, San Román, San Salvador de Muxa, San Xoán de Pena, San Xoán do Alto, San Xoán do Campo, Santa Comba, Santa María de Alta, Santa Marta de Fixós, Santalla de Bóveda de Mera, Santo André de Castro, Soñar, Teixeiro, Tirimol, Torible, O Veral, Vilachá de Mera.
Climate
Lugo has a humid oceanic climate with drier summers, Cfb in the Köppen climate classification although it could also be classified as a mild Mediterranean climate (Csb) depending on favoured summer precipitation threshold. Due to its remoteness from the Atlantic, its annual precipitation of 1,084 millimetres (42.7 in) can be considered low compared with areas of the Rias Baixas and Santiago de Compostela. The highest temperature recorded in history, 39.6 °C (103 °F), occurred in August 1961 and the lowest temperature was -13.2 °C (8.2 °F) in February 1983. The city has an average of six days of snow per year, which is a contrast to coastal cities of Galicia which have not received snow in modern times.
Later conquered by Paullus Fabius Maximus and called Lucus Augusti[9] in 13 BC on the positioning of a Roman military camp,[nb 1] while the Roman Empire completed the conquest, in the North, of the Iberian Peninsula. Situated in what was the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis, it was the chief town of the tribe of the Capori. Though small it was the most important Roman town in what became Gallaecia during the Roman period, the seat of a conventus, one of three in Gallaecia, and later became one of the two capitals of Gallaecia, and gave its name to the Callaïci Lucenses. It was centrally situated in a large gold mining region, which during the Roman period was very active. The Conventus Lucensis, according to Pliny, began at the river Navilubio, and contained 16 peoples; besides the Celtici and Lebuni. Though these tribes were not powerful, and their names "barbarous" to Roman ears, there were among them 166,000 freemen. The city stood on one of the upper branches of the Minius (modern Miño), on the road from Bracara to Asturica, and had some famous baths, near from the bridge across the Miño.
Lucus was the seat of a bishopric by the later 5th century at the latest and remained an administrative center under the Suebi and Visigoths, before going into such a decline that the site was found to be deserted in the middle of the 8th century by Bishop Odoario, who set about reviving it. 10th-century attempts at rebuilding its casas destructas (abandoned tenements) suggest that it remained a town only on paper: the seat of a bishopric, administered by a count, from which royal charters were issued. "Its commercial and industrial role was insignificant", Richard Fletcher wrote of 11th century Lugo.
During the Middle Ages Lugo, like Santiago de Compostela, was a center of pilgrimage, because the cathedral had the special privilege, which it still retains today, of exposing to the public the consecrated host twenty-four hours a day. In the 18th century Lugo was granted the privilege of organizing the fairs of St. Froilán. During the Modern Age, Lugo had a certain supremacy, although other nearby towns such as Mondoñedo or Ribadeo disputed it. It was not until the division of the state into provinces in 1833 and the creation of provincial governments that Lugo has become the most important town in the province of Lugo, because of its capital status. This rise has been bolstered by the arrival of the first railroad to the city in 1875.
During the 20th century the city continued to grow as the administration and services center of the province. In 1936, when the Civil War broke out, the city became quickly under the Nationalists control. In the 1970s the city undertook important reforms, like the development of the Ceao Industrial Area (1979) and the complete restoration of the Roman walls.
Infanta Elena, the elder daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain and fourth in the line of succession to the Spanish throne, has been duchess of Lugo since 1995.
In 2000, the recognition of the Roman walls on UNESCO's World Heritage Site was an important event in the city.
[...]
(
visit link)