GALICIA Information - ROMAN
GALICIA |
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The boundaries of Iberia, the lands
of Asturians, Cantabrians and Galicians, had always been coveted by
Roman invaders, particularly from the year 130 B.C. onwards, once
they had finished with the fearsome Lusitanian Viariato. Oecimus Junius
Brutus, at the head of his troops, was to be the first to destroy
the myth of the River Leteo or Olvido, known now as Limia, by defying
the superstition spread by local tribes, who said that this river
was the point of no return where men lost their memories. Later Caesar
himself and Octavius Augustus carried out new campaigns and in the
year 19 RC. consolidated their power. New towns were set up in the
valleys, the Castreños were forced to abandon their fortified
enclosures, others drew up friendship agreements, and life went on
in these citadels or oppidum, which were to basically go on controlling
gold and iron mining emporiums and the routes that guaranteed their
transportation. Archaeology indicates Roman presence in nearly every
castro.
The city walls of Lugo, Human Heritage, with a length of 2,140 m,
are - thanks to their perfect state of conservation - a superb example
of Roman culture in the world, as is the Torre de Hercules lighthouse
in A Coruña, the world's oldest working lighthouse. Both constructions
were founded by the Roman state and work began on them after the Christian
era had started.
The Roman Bridge of Bibei, spanning the vineyard-covered banks of
Larouco in the Ourense province ; the nimphaeum of Santa Eulalia de
Bóveda in the area of Lugo, or thel very foundations of Compostela
Cathedral, Iria Flavia in Padron are, among the many significant,
remains discovered by archaeology, proof of the massive, continuous
impression left by Rome on Galicia. This can also be seen in the extensive,
well-marked road network, with its milliary stones measuring distances
and paying homage to the emperors who built them, covering Galician
territory over all points of the compass, particularly road XVIII
or Via Nova which went from Braga to Astorga. Roads around which there
existed thermal baths such as Riocaldo in Lobios, or mansions like
Aquis Querquennis, in the area of Bande.
Galicia's ethnography is living archaeology, and refers to a large
number of technological traditions, solutions, Galician-Roman rites
and beliefs where their is no lack of contributions from animism,
pantheism from the most ancestral cultures and where we find agricultural
folk festivals related with the four seasons and the worship of land,
water, fire, air, the combination of the profane and the sacred, appearing
in celebrations like "Antroido", Maios", "San
Xoan", "Magostos", and so on. |
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