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Lugo, Spain (Capital)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Lugo, Spain (Province)

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Capital of the above Spanish province, is situated on the left bank of the river Minx) and on the railway from Corunna to Madrid. Pop. (1900) 26,959. Lugo is an episcopal see, and was formerly the capital of Galicia. Suburbs have grown up round the original town, the form of which, nearly quadrangular, is defined by a massive Roman wall 30 to 40 ft. high and 20 ft. thick, with projecting semicircular towers which numbered 85 as late as 180 9, when parts of the fortifications were destroyed by the French. The wall now serves as a promenade. The Gothic cathedral, on the south side of the town, dates from the 12th century, but was modernized in the 18th, and possesses no special architectural merit. The conventual church of Santo Domingo dates from the 14th century. The principal industries are tanning, and the manufacture of linen and woollen cloth. About 1 m. S., on the left bank of the Mino, are the famous hot sulphur baths of Lugo.

Lugo (Lucus Augusti ) was a flourishing city under Roman rule (c. 19 B.C.-A.D. 409) and was made by Augustus the seat of a conventus juridicus (assize). Its sulphur baths were even then well known. It was sacked by barbarian invaders in the 5th century, and suffered greatly in the Moorish wars of the 8th century. The bishopric dates from a very early period, and it it said to have acquired metropolitan rank in the middle of the 6th century; it is now in the archiepiscopal province of Santiago de Compostela.