Lugo - quiet city out of the spotlight

Cloister of the Province Museum

Lugo, in the north of Galicia, is just a little too far from my house to go for a day trip, but at last this week I took advantage of being in Santiago to pop over to this quiet, unassuming city.

Although it has all the requisites for being officially a city, it is more like a large town.  The charming, compact old town lies within Lugo's famous imposing 3kms medieval walls, which you can walk along in half an hour.  There are stairs up in 5 places and it is free.  I will say that while I enjoyed the walk, it was not as good as I had been led to believe by most of the TripAdvisor comments.  There aren't any spectacular views.  What you see is the crumbly backs of the houses in the old town, and many delapidated buildings on the new side.

the medieval wall encircles the old town

I parked in the street near Ronda de Carme, just outside of the walls, which was free and within easy walking distance of the centre. There are also plenty of paid carparks within the walls which charge in the region of 3 - 7€ for 2 hrs.

I made a beeline for the Plaza Mayor, which is usually a good place to start in any Spanish town, but was surprised to find it has a park in the middle of it, overlooked by the attractive town hall, and only a couple of cafes with outdoor tables, with a sleepy ambience rather than a bustling hive of activity which is more typical of a main square.

Lugo town hall in the Plaza Mayor

Next stop had to be the cathedral, just west of the plaza.  What a mixture of styles!  Neoclassical facade, gothic, romanesque and renaissance interior, beautiful 19th Century stained glass windows, huge gold and silver altar, and a stunning frescoed dome.  Entry costs 5€ (there's a discount for pilgrims) including an audio guide.  (I did see that worshippers were entering through the back door, if you wanted to try to slip in for free.)

back of the cathedral

top of the altar, stained glass windows and painted ceiling (taken from their leaflet)

gold and silver altar

The cathedral museum is one of the most interesting church museums I have visited, and being on the upper floor, affords a good view of the choir, which is closed off from the public.  I'm not a fan of religious artefacts such as chalices and bishops jewellery and robes, so was pleased to find this museum has a wide variety of objects from Roman tools, lovely medieval statues, religious art, stonework and decorated.

Next I stopped briefly at the Mosaic House, which was not at all what I expected.  The entrance is a door next to a shoe shop, and is easily missed.  The free museum is underground and is in fact a single space with a couple of floor mosaics fragments exposed, the biggest of which is viewed through a window in the floor of the shoeshop.

floor mosaic in the Province Museum

After a spot of delicious lunch in veggie-friendly Reina restaurant in Rua Raiña, I headed for the Province Museum, also free, based in a former monastery, where more mosaic fragments are housed.  Most of the collection is local art, and much of it is very good indeed.  I was especially impressed by the post war section.

There are other museums and churches to see, and also the riverside walk, but that will be for a future visit to Lugo.

Lugo is gentle and friendly, unlike its more well-known counterparts. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. 

From Lugo I drove down to Chantada and O Carballiño.  But that´s another story.