AGM 2002
- Lugo
Lugo, the oldest Galician capital, owes its founding to
the expansion policy carried out by Augustus whose desire
was to join the northeast peninsula to the Roman Empire.
Paulo Fabio Máximo, therefore, founded " Lucus
Augusti", (24-23 years before Christ) named after
the emperor . The city was to be the capital of the jurisdiction
of Lugo, incorporating northern Gallaecia.
The name Lucus,
where the name Lugo comes from, is a derivation of the
Latin meaning holy wood. It may also go further back and
derive from the name of the celtic God "Lugh",
God of light, who was worshipped in this area in pre-Roman
times. On Easter night in the year 460 a bloody event
took place in which the Swabians
gained control of the city, killing its governor. Under
their reign, the city played
an important role as a religious centre as the headquarters
of famous councils. In the year 585 the Swabian rule made
way for that of the Visigoths. At the beginning of the
eighth century the city was attacked and taken by Muslim
troops headed by Muza, although this rule lasted only
a short time as in 740 the Asturian monarch Alfonso I
recaptured it and entrusted its repopulation to the bishop
Odoario. In the following centuries the medieval unrest
continued; the city underwent more attacks by the Arabs
(Almanzor in 997), independent attacks against the Asturian
monarchy, such as the one headed by Count Oveco, as well
as communal attacks against the church ( María
Castaña revolt at the beginning of the fifteenth
century).
Entering the middle ages under the rule of the Catholic
Kings brought a time of peace which was to be broken in
the nineteenth century with attacks by the French (the
War of Independence) and the Carlist Wars. This caused
substantial damage to the wall.
