Monforte de Lemos
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| Monforte de Lemos | |||||
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| Location | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Location of Monforte de Lemos |
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| Coordinates : Time zone : |
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| General information | |||||
| Native name | Monforte de Lemos (Galician) | ||||
| Spanish name | Monforte de Lemos | ||||
| Postal code | 27400 | ||||
| Website | http://www.concellodemonforte.com/ | ||||
| Administration | |||||
| Country | Spain | ||||
| Autonomous Community | Galicia | ||||
| Province | Lugo | ||||
| Comarca | Terra de Lemos | ||||
| Mayor | Severino Rodríguez (BNG) | ||||
| Geography | |||||
| Land Area | 199,5 km² | ||||
| Altitude | 290 m AMSL | ||||
| Population | |||||
| Population | 19.412 (2007) | ||||
| Density | 97,6 hab./km² (2007) | ||||
Monforte de Lemos is a city and municipality in northwestern Spain, in the province of Lugo, Galicia. It covers an area of 200 km² and lies 62 km from Lugo. As of 2005 it had a population of 19,472. It is located in a valley between the shores of Sil River and Miño River, in the area known as "Ribeira Sacra" (Sacred Shore), being the capital of the area. The city lies on the Cabe, a tributary of the Sil River.
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[edit] History
[edit] From Celtic to Roman Invasion
The area around the town has been inhabited long before Roman occupation, with excavations dating to the Bronze Age. The Lemavos, a tribe of Celtic derivation, from which the town derives its name, also predated Romanization according to Pliny. The Lemavos were centered on the hill of San Vicente, then known as Castro Dactonium, and actual center of the City, where the Monastery and Castle are placed. Is believed the town was destroyed in the 8th century by Muslim invasion. In the 12th century, the Count of Galicia granted Froila Diaz from the House of Lemos, for the town to be rebuilt over the ruins. The town would, from there, flourish as an agricultural market.
[edit] Middle Age to Enlightenment
The Middle Age is one of the most important periods on the city's History. The Benedictine community established on the Monastery of San Vicente del Pino, on an unknown date, in order to the loss of the Monastery's documents on a fire dated on the XIX century, which also destroyed valuable pictures and most of the palace which is placed beside the Monastery, and from which only a small part is actually conserved. A lot of Monasterys were built around the city on the Middle Age, in the zone known as Ribeira Sacra (English: Sacred Shore), a place that includes the territory placed between the shores of rivers Sil and Miño, and in which the rivers run through spectacular canyons. Monforte is the capital of the ancient zone.
Both the capital tower and the fortified city's walls were demolished during the Irmandiño's revolution, a revolution that confronted nobility and people, on the second half of XV century, which took dimensions of a civil war. But that early episode was repressed by the Count of Lemos, lord of the land, which refused to punish the rebels, and made them work to rebuilt the castle. When he was asked to hang the rebels from the oaks, his famous sentence was "I do not feed of oaks".
Two of the most remarkable men on the city's history were Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro and the Seventh count of Lemos, Pedro Fernandez de Castro Y Andrade. First one is remembered as a great benefactor of the city, and responsible of building Nuestra Señora de La Antigua's School, an impressive monumental School and church, in Herrerianian Style; valued as one of the architectonic galicia's treasures, and know as the "Galician Escorial". The place acquired the name of "Plaza de la compañía" (society's place), as long as the building was encomended to the Society of Jesus, which ruled the school until their expulsion order from Spain, a time when Escolapios' Order took place in it.
Inside the school's church, you can see a spectacular altarpiece built by the great Galician master Francisco de Moure; the perfection and monumentality of the Altarpiece made impossible for the artist to finish it during his life, and it was his son who finally finished it. Over the altarpiece you can see an empty piece of wood from which the Society of Jesus' Symbol was erased, in order to clean every fingerprint they left on Spain. The School treasures also a great collection of valuable pictures, which includes a couple of Grecos, and five by Andrea del Sarto; a valious Van Der Goes was sold to Museum Island, in Berlin, in order to finish the works of the school. also his monumental stair causes admiration in order to its lack of physical support. The stair is made in one marble piece, and supported on air by an ingenious game of strengths. Is admired also the Praying statue of Cardinal Rodrigo The Castro, unique in his kind. The statue is placed over his grave, inside the church, and in front of an image of Nuestra Señora de La Antigua; recent works have found that the grave hide behind the picture, is Cardinal Rodrigo's Mother. So he is eternally praying in front of his mother's grave.
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The second man to left his giant step on the city's history, Pedro Fernandez De Castro, Seventh count of Lemos, is known as a great mecenas and protector of artists and writers, which includes Cervantes, Góngora, Lope de Vega, The Argensola brothers, or Quevedo. This last writer called the count "Honor of our age", and the second part of Don Quixote by Cervantes was dedicated to the count. Góngora and Quevedo left also several poems about the city or the count. He was president of Indias Council, President of Italy's Supreme Council, and Virrey of Napoles. His wife, Catalina de La Cerda y Sandoval, was responsible of the Building of Santa Clara's Convent, which owns one of the most important Spanish Sacred art's Museums, placed on the Historic side of the city; the most important piece of the museum is a lying christ by Gregorio Fernández, which is widely admired because of the reality of his expression, the suffering on his face and his body forms, which makes the visitor almost believe he is watching the real Jesus right after crucifixion. Other pieces of the museum consist on saint's relics and several pope's clothes and objects, like a valious pope crown.
The Seventh Count of Lemos was the most powerful lord of Galicia, and is remembered his sentence, related to the Spanish king "We, which are as much as you, but, all together are bigger than you".[citation needed] He worked hard for Galicia to have his own representation on Spanish institutions, as the old Kingdom it was. Thanks to this, Galicia is given vote on courts, and the Kingdom of Galicia's Council could work as a reality.[citation needed] Also, he helped Silk to take place as a basic piece on the town's economy, business which would develop in further years.[citation needed]
[edit] Contemporary Age
On contemporary age, one of the most remarkable facts was the inauguration of the railroad lines by King Alfonso XII, on 1883 which helped Monforte to take place as an important mercadory and communication center, as long as it was Galicia's entrance by train. Two years later, on 1885 the king gave the legal treatment of "City" to Monforte, regarding his hard efforts on the railroad works.
That led to a time of social, cultural and economic growth; the City is fulfilled of cultural Associacions, politic and ideological movements; local newspapers and magazines take place on the city's life. One of the "Irmandades da fala" (Language brotherhood), an important Galician association was placed on the city.
The civil war also left a brutal step, and the last republican Major, Juan Tizon Herreros, escaped to Portugal, after trying to reorganize the resistance. His predecessor, major Rosendo Vila Fernandez, was brutally killed by the rebels.
On next decades, the lead motor of local economy, the raliroad station, was partially dismantled, the communication center was moved to the city of Ourense, the train factories were removed, and a great Economic Depression arrived to Monforte. Companies closed their doors and future seemed to be dark, until recently, it seems to appear a light recovery, in order to new ideas and projects, lead by different people interested on helping the city be were it deserves to be. The tourism business is taking an important role on Monforte, and the transformation of the Monastery and Palace of San Vicente del Pino into a Tourism Hotel, helped this reality come true.
Either, a Railroad Museum has been created on the old train factory, in order to show the old steam machines that used to be repaired there, and in memory of the strong railroader tradition in the city, and plus to add for the visitor that comes to see the artistic and historical treasures of the city, his two museums, the castle, school, and convent, and all the Romanic churches surrounding the city.
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
- Historia de Monforte, Germán Vázquez
- Los señores de Galicia, Profesor Pardo de Guevara
- Lemos, Manuel Hermida Balado
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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