The Roman walls of Lugo (Spanish, Galician: ''Muralla Romana de Lugo'') are the ancient Roman defensive walls stretching around the Old Town of Lugo, Spain. They were built in the third century AD to defend the ancient Roman town of ''Lucus Augusti''. The fortifications, still largely intact, were declared a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 2000 and are a popular tourist attraction.

Description

Walls

The

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

s were built between 263 and 276 A.D. to defend the Roman town of ''Lucus Augusti'' (present-day Lugo) against local tribesmen and Germanic invaders. The walls formed part of a complex of fortifications which also included a moat and an intervallum (the clearing between the walls and the city). The entire length of the walls is around , enclosing an area of . Not all of the town was enclosed by walls: much of the southeastern part of the town remained unprotected, while in other places unused areas were enclosed by walls."Lugo City Walls in Lugo, Spain", Spain.info
/ref> The width of the walls is around and their height varies between and . The walls consist of internal and external stone facing with a core of earth mixed with gravel, pebbles and worked Roman stone recycled from demolished buildings, cemented with water.

Gates

There are ten gates in the walls: five dating to Roman times; and five added after 1853 to accommodate the expanding town population. The best preserved original gates are the Porta Falsa and the Porta Miña, the latter still has its original vaulted arch set between two towers. Five stairways and a ramp provide access to the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

walk over the walls. Within the walls, a number of double staircases provide access to the towers from the parapet walk.

Towers

Of the original towers, 49 are still intact, and another 39 have partially survived. The towers were built at irregular intervals along the walls. They consist of two storeys and are mostly semicircular; a few are rectangular. The spaces between the towers varies from to . A mix of materials was used for the construction of the towers. Often the base of the tower was constructed of dressed

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

, with the remainder in slate.

History

Pilgrim route

During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

pilgrim A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of ...

s passed through the gates of the Lugo walls, particularly Porta Miña, on their way to Santiago de Compostela.

Present day

The fortifications were added to

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in late 2000 as "the finest example of late

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

fortifications in western Europe.""Roman walls of Lugo", UNESCO World Heritage Centre
/ref> The walls have held Spanish monument status (''

Bien de Interés Cultural A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the heritage register in Spain. The term is also used in Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries. The term literally means a "good of cultural interest" (" goods" in the economic sense) and incl ...

'') since 1921. In 2007 the walls were twinned with the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic gro ...

during a ceremony attended by China's then-ambassador to Spain, Qiu Xiaoqi. A walkway over the walls now allows visitors to stroll along the entire length. The town also has a visitor's centre dedicated to the walls, the ''Centro de Interpretación da Muralla''. Since the inscription of the walls on the World Heritage List in 2000, Lugo holds a popular festival called Arde Lucus each year to celebrate its Roman past.''Acaba un Arde Lucus no que máis de 460.000 persoas botáronse á rúa en tres días''
, nova en ''El Progreso'' o 27 de xuño de 2010.

Gallery

File:Puertas de la muralla de Lugo (numeradas).svg, Map of the walls showing the location of the 10 gates File:Porta.SanPedro.jpg, The San Pedro gate, one of the five original Roman gates File:Lugo 060420.jpg, Walkway over the walls File:1850-10-06, Semanario Pintoresco Español, Muralla romana de Lugo, Pizarro.jpg, Engraving of 1850 depicting the original windows, published in the ''Semanario Pintoresco Español''

References

External links

Explore the Roman Walls of Lugo in the UNESCO collection on Google Arts and Culture
{{Authority control 260s establishments in the Roman Empire Lugo Roman sites in Spain World Heritage Sites in Spain Buildings and structures completed in the 3rd century Roman fortifications in Hispania Tarraconensis Buildings and structures in the Province of Lugo Tourist attractions in Galicia (Spain) Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Lugo Roman walls in Spain 3rd-century fortifications Galician culture