5. Lugo

From the cathedral, the Way offers two options for leaving the walled enclosure. One allows pilgrims to exit via the Porta de Santiago, located opposite the temple’s neoclassical façade, and descend along Rúa de Santiago. The other leads to the Porta Miñá or Porta do Carme, the Roman gate that has best preserved its original layout and whose orientation toward the river explains its name. Both routes eventually connect with the Calzada da Ponte.

From Porta Miñá, the route descends toward the river, following the path of an ancient Roman road that connected Lucus Augusti with the Miño. The Primitive Way follows this same route until it reaches the Roman bridge. Although renovated at various times, the bridge continues to serve its age-old function as a crossing point, allowing walkers and pilgrims to cross the river and continue their journey to Santiago.

The Roman baths are preserved very close to the bridge, demonstrating how the thermal waters were utilized by the inhabitants of Lucus Augusti. A metal sculpture of a Roman soldier, created during the 2015 Arde Lvcus festival, is also located there. With his spear and shield, the figure appears to stand guard over the crossing, serving as a reminder of how the city keeps its past alive through a contemporary celebration.

The route concludes by opening up to the landscape of the Miño River. After traversing streets, squares, monuments, and centuries of history, the pilgrim once again encounters the water, trees, and riverside vegetation. The riverside walk offers a chance to stop, rest, and discover that the river is not merely a boundary to be crossed; it is also a natural corridor, a recreational space, and an essential part of Lugo’s landscap

Rivers are much more than just flowing water. Their channels and riparian vegetation form ecological corridors that connect different habitats and facilitate the movement, feeding, and reproduction of numerous species.

Alders, willows, birches, oaks, and other trees typical of these environments help stabilize the soil and protect the banks from erosion. They also provide shade for the water and offer food and shelter to birds, mammals, amphibians, fish, insects, and many other forms of life that depend on the continuity and healthy condition of these areas.

But this green and blue network also directly benefits people. Trees provide shade, moderate temperatures, and help improve environmental quality. Parks and riverside walkways offer places to walk, rest, exercise, observe nature, or meet other people.

Walks along the Miño also offer access to riverside woodlands without leaving Lugo. Stretching along its banks is the Parque do Miño, one of the city’s major green spaces, featuring wooded areas, rest spots, and paths for walking, exercising, or cycling. In this setting, the Primitive Way crosses the river via the Ponte Vella (Old Bridge); of Roman origin and rebuilt over various eras, the bridge marks the transition between the historic city and the river landscape.

The work of these professionals continues after the planning stage. They can supervise forestry operations, advise landowners and forest communities, conduct inventories, value timber and other resources, design infrastructure, restore land, and work on fire prevention and suppression.

They also work in harvesting and processing companies, forestry associations, consultancies, research centers, public administration bodies, and organizations linked to nature conservation.

Their work requires striking a balance. A single forest can produce timber, protect soil and water, sequester carbon, harbor biodiversity, provide recreational spaces, and generate income for its owners. Planning makes it possible to organize these objectives and prevent immediate decisions from compromising future possibilities.

Forestry engineering also plays an important role in certification. To obtain PEFC certification, a forest must have the appropriate management plan in place and demonstrate that its management meets the requirements of the Spanish PEFC Forest Certification System.

An independent certification body reviews the documentation and verifies on-site whether management complies with those requirements. Audit teams must possess the qualifications, forestry knowledge, specific training, and professional experience established for performing this function.

During an audit, documents are reviewed, the forest is visited, and evidence is sought to confirm that planned activities are actually being implemented. Based on the results, the certification body decides whether to grant or maintain the certificate.

The confidence conveyed by the PEFC label thus rests on two distinct yet complementary tasks: the work of those who study and plan forest management, and the independent verification that such management is carried out sustainably.

Its primary raw material is cellulose fiber, which can be derived from wood or recovered paper. When responsibly sourced and properly used, paper is a renewable and recyclable material capable of replacing certain products made from fossil-based resources.

When paper becomes a book, it also acquires cultural value. Its pages make it possible to preserve knowledge, stories, and experiences, to pass them on across generations, and to carry them far beyond the place and time in which they were written.

At CENTRAD, the book can be discovered not only as a work to be read but also as an object created and preserved through various crafts. Its Obradoiro do Libro (Book Workshop) is dedicated to promoting the arts associated with book production, binding, and restoration, skills that have enabled the protection of documents and the extension of the lifespan of books throughout history.

Its educational activities include introductory and artistic bookbinding, the restoration of graphic works, gilding, artisanal papermaking, printing with lead type and letterpresses, wallpaper production, and the creation of artist’s books. Mobile workshops are also conducted to bring these techniques to educational centers across the province.

In this space, sheets of paper are folded, sewn, and gathered; covers protect their contents, and letters leave their mark through ancient printing techniques. The book thus emerges as the result of a union between material, knowledge, skill, and creativity. It can also be restored when the passage of time has damaged its pages or binding, thereby extending its life and preserving the history it holds.

CENTRAD also houses a library with thousands of volumes that are part of the Galicia library network. Alongside this, it maintains specialized documentary and bibliographic collections linked to its collection of musical instruments, contributing to the study and dissemination of traditional music and instruments.

From the fiber used to manufacture the paper to the hands that bind, print, or restore its pages, every book travels along a long chain. Choosing materials from responsible sources ensures that the culture preserved within its pages is accompanied by another equally important story: that of the stewardship of the forest from which its fibers originate.

PEFC certification makes it possible to identify books, publications, and other printed products made from materials sourced from sustainable and controlled forests. In this way, a book can convey knowledge while simultaneously demonstrating a commitment to the responsible sourcing of its materials.

A relación de Lugo co patrimonio faise especialmente visible durante o Arde Lucus, unha celebración que devolve temporalmente as rúas ás súas orixes romanas e castrexas. Campamentos, mercados, desfiles, obradoiros e representacións invitan a imaxinar como era a vida neste territorio hai arredor de dous mil anos.

A recreación permite observar tamén a importancia que tiñan os materiais obtidos da contorna. A madeira, as fibras vexetais, o coiro, a la, a pedra e os metais servían para construír, desprazarse, cociñar, almacenar alimentos e fabricar ferramentas e obxectos cotiáns. Nos postos artesáns e nas escenas recreadas poden recoñecerse algúns destes materiais e as técnicas empregadas para transformalos.

Unha recreación histórica non reproduce necesariamente cada detalle do pasado, pero pode espertar a curiosidade e axudarnos a comprender canto dependeron as sociedades antigas dos recursos naturais. Aínda que hoxe contamos con novas tecnoloxías, seguimos necesitando eses recursos; coñecer os seus usos ao longo da historia invítanos tamén a valorar a súa procedencia e a utilizalos de maneira responsable.

Very close to the Praza Maior, beneath a building on Rúa Doutor Castro, the remains of a large Roman residence are preserved. Its dimensions and decoration indicate that it must have belonged to a person of high status within Lucus Augusti.

The House of Mosaics allows visitors to view floors decorated with geometric and figurative motifs, part of a porticoed courtyard, and the remains of a dining room equipped with an underfloor heating system. These elements help one visualize how the wealthiest residences in the Roman city were organized and inhabited.

The visit reveals that a significant part of Lucus Augusti remains hidden beneath today’s streets and buildings. Each archaeological excavation opens a small window into the city that still forms part of Lugo’s foundations.

Next to the cathedral of Lugo, beneath the Casa do Saber of the University of Santiago de Compostela, lies the Domus do Mitreo. The site preserves the remains of a large Roman residence and a temple dedicated to Mithras, a deity whose cult spread across various territories of the Empire.

The space offers insight into aspects of the architecture, domestic life, and beliefs of the inhabitants of Lucus Augusti. It also illustrates how the construction of the city wall altered the earlier urban layout, as part of the dwelling was affected by the new defensive perimeter.

This layering makes the Domus do Mitreo a particularly interesting site: within a single space, one can observe different stages of the city’s history and understand how each generation built upon the traces left by those that came before.

Upon leaving the walled enclosure through the Porta Miñá, you come across a room dedicated to explaining the evolution of the Roman city. It is housed in the former municipal slaughterhouse, a late 19th-century building located right on the Primitive Way route.

The exhibition combines archaeological artifacts, photographs, plans, and reconstructions to illustrate the birth, growth, fortification, and decline of Lucus Augusti. The objects come from excavations carried out at various sites in Lugo and offer insight into both the city’s organization and the daily lives of its inhabitants. A small section of a Roman sewer can also be seen inside the exhibition hall, providing evidence of the sanitation network that ran through the ancient city and the high level of urban planning achieved in Lucus Augusti.

Its location, next to one of the best-preserved Roman gates, helps connect what is explained inside with the city wall and the urban layout that can still be seen outside.

Those with more time can visit the Provincial Museum, housed in part of the former San Francisco convent. The building preserves historic spaces, such as the Romanesque cloister, the refectory, and the old convent kitchen, that are part of the visit itself.

Its collections offer a journey through different stages of the province’s history and culture. They include archaeological artifacts, pre-Roman metalwork, sculpture, painting, decorative arts, and objects related to traditional ways of life and work.

The visit completes the story that begins on the streets of Lugo. The objects preserved in the museum offer a better understanding of the communities that inhabited this territory, the materials they used, the knowledge they developed, and the various ways they transformed available resources into tools, everyday objects, and works of art.