MONFORTE AND LUGO
Monforte--The Jesuit College--A picture by Greco--Cloister planned
by Herrera--Relics in the convent of Santa Clara--Doña
Catalina--The modern town--Like a spider’s web--The Province of
Lugo--The town of Lugo--The Roman wall--Towers and windows--A
Celtic town--Derivation of the name--The Sueves at Lugo--The seat
of a Metropolitan--Struggles between the clergy and the
nobles--Lugo’s great privilege--The continual exposition of the
Host--Early references to this privilege--The Archives of
Lugo--Molina--Lugo Cathedral--Its peculiarities--Our Lady of the
Large Eyes--The lateral façade--Wood-carving of the
choir--Sarcophagus of Froila--The chapel of Our Lady with the Large
Eyes--The convent of San Francisco--Peculiarity of its
apses--Frescoes--The cloister--Borrow on Lugo Cathedral--Santo
Domingo--Traces of the Roman occupation--Rain in Lugo--A great
Roman Catholic gathering--From our hotel windows--A funeral
procession--St. James on horseback--Mondoñedo
Monforte, or, to give it its full name, Monforte de Lemus, in the
province of Lugo, was our next halting-place after we left Orense. The
population of Orense is under five thousand, and there is, besides the
Jesuit College, nothing in the modern town to recommend it to the
visitor’s attention beyond the fact that it gives its name to an
important railway junction, by which communication is carried from
Galicia to Madrid and the rest of Spain. We decided, however, to spend
one night there that we might have time to visit the fourteenth-century
tower with dungeons below it that crowns the mediæval citadel, the
remnant of the palace of the Counts of Lemos, and the neighbouring
Benedictine convent with its handsome church of _San Vicente del Pino_,
bearing the date 1539.
Two professors conducted us through the various public apartments of the
Jesuit College. They showed us with pride a painting of St. Francis of
Assisi by Greco[279] (and bearing his signature), which is said to be
finer than the one that is so highly prized in the Madrid Gallery. St.
Francis wears a grey robe and cowl, and holds a skull in his hand, and
another monk with hands clasped is looking up to his face as he listens
to his words. We next visited the church; there our attention was drawn
to the famous reredos of carved wood, said to be the work of the great
Gallegan wood-carver Francisco Moure. Every niche is filled with an
exquisitely carved group representing some well-known Biblical scene.
Moure died before this work was completed, and it was finished by his
son. Among their many precious relics the Jesuits were particularly
anxious that we should note the skull of the second Pope, and other
valuable relics. They then took us to see their fine cloister, which
dates from the year 1600, and was planned by Herrera, the architect of
the Escurial. The whole college is well built, and stands in extensive
grounds; its façade is imposing, especially from the train windows. This
college was intended by its founder to draw students from all parts of
Spain, and to be one of the principal centres of learning in the
country.
We were now conducted to the neighbouring convent of Santa Clara, and
our guide requested the nuns to show the remarkable collection of relics
which they were known to possess. But these ladies, who interviewed us
from behind a double grating of iron bars, refused point-blank to allow
the eyes of the uninitiated to rest even for a moment on their sacred
treasures. “Here is a little book,” said the Lady Superior, “in which
you will find a list of our relics,” and she handed it to me through the
thick bars that separated her and her companions from the outside world.
I brought the book away with me, and read in it later that the convent
in question had been founded by _Señora Doña Catalina de Sandoval y
Roja_, of whom the convent possessed a full-length portrait. She was the
wife of _Don Pedro Fernandez de Castro_, seventh Count of Lemos.[280]
This pious dame exerted her every effort to endow her convent with a
fine collection of relics. She was by birth a Neapolitan princess, and
Pope Paul V. granted her a Bull allowing all the “archbishops, bishops
and abbots of the Kingdom of Naples to give to her new convent any
relics they might have in their churches.” On receipt of the Bull, Doña
Catalina’s husband had lost no time in sending letters to all the church
dignitaries of Naples to notify them that they might now send what
relics they liked to Monforte. Four trusty Capuchin monks bore the
letters to Italy, and returned laden with relics, which they handed over
to Doña Catalina, with the letters in which the archbishops and bishops
replied to Count Pedro. Some of these divines excused themselves,
saying that their relics were so small that they were not worth sending,
but others sent a great many from their rich collections. All the relics
that were thus accumulated were deposited, with the letters that
accompanied them, in the convent of Santa Clara, in August 1703.
Looking through the list of relics given in the book, I noted that there
were among them,--several pieces of the true Cross, in golden cases; a
nail from the Cross in a crystal case; a thorn from the Crown of Thorns;
a little piece of the sheet in which the body of Christ was wrapped; a
little piece of the Virgin’s veil; a bone from the body of St. Paul; a
fragment of the column to which Christ was bound; a bit of cloth stained
with the blood of John the Baptist; a drop of milk from the Virgin’s
breast; a tooth of St. Catherine, and a drop of milk (that was drawn
from her breast by the knife of her executioner); a bone from the body
of Pope Gregory; the heads of six of the eleven thousand virgins
(English maidens) who fled from Cornwall with St. Ursula. There was a
long list of other heads, or rather skulls, of saints, and this was
followed by a long list of bodies, some complete, some incomplete; then
came a still longer list of bones, arm bones, shin bones, and every
other kind of bone. I could not help feeling, as I turned over page
after page, that the nuns of Santa Clara were wise after all in refusing
to expose their museum of human remains to the curiosity of passing
strangers.
The modern part of Monforte, on the plain beneath the citadel, with its
wide streets lined with black poplars and its clay-built houses, is much
more like a Castillian than a Gallegan town; in fact, to my eyes, so
long accustomed to narrow streets and the granite houses of Galicia,
Monforte presented a strange and novel contrast. Monforte is built out
round its citadel like a spider’s web. I do not know any town except
Carlsruhe to which I can compare it.
The province of Lugo, the fourth and last division of Galicia with which
we have to deal, lies to the north of Orense, and is itself bounded on
the north by the Bay of Biscay, with a coast-line of sixty Spanish
miles. The province of Lugo is very mountainous, but in its centre there
are fertile plains and valleys watered by innumerable rivers and
streams; the most important of which is our old acquaintance the river
Miño, which has its source in a spring near the town of Lugo. The Ulla
and the Eo also have their rise in this province, the latter being the
natural boundary between Lugo and Oviedo.
Lugo, the chief town of the province of Lugo, was our next stopping
place after Monforte. The railway station is on the plain, but Lugo
stands upon a hill, and is still surrounded by an ancient wall which
dates from the days of the Romans. This wall, with its many bastions and
semicircular towers built of massive granite, must have been a fine
sight during the Middle Ages, for it is still one of the finest ruins of
its kind in the whole of the Peninsula. Molina wrote in the sixteenth
century that the walls of Lugo were one of the marvels of Spain, and so
wide that two carriages could drive abreast round their entire circuit,
and crowned by so many towers that there was one at every eighth step.
He adds that when Lugo was at the height of her splendour each of these
towers contained living-rooms, and was inhabited by a watchman whose
duty it was to guard the town. “Even now,” he continues, “each tower has
still many windows, and pieces of the old window-panes are often picked
up near them; the glass was very thick and white.” Molina also speaks of
some ancient Roman baths which were mentioned by Pliny, and which he
considers to be the oldest baths in Spain--more than a thousand years
old. “How strange,” he remarks, “that though the springs are only forty
steps distant from the river Miño, their water is quite hot; such a
difference of temperature within such a small space is marvellous.”
Like Monforte, Lugo is built upon a hill rising in the midst of a plain.
The ancient Romans made this town the centre of their administration of
Galicia; they kept two cohorts of the Seventh Legion stationed here, and
it was an important point of defence against the attacks of unsubdued
native tribes. Within the walls there are to-day twenty-nine streets and
several fine squares, but the town spreads far beyond the walls, and
there are quite as many inhabitants dwelling outside. In the days of the
Romans, Lugo was known as _Augusta Lucus_. Tradition tells us that the
Romans found a Celtic town there, and although we have as yet no actual
proof of this, we know for a certainty that the ancient Celts had a god
called Lugus or Lug (gen. Loga). Jubainville thinks that the name of
Louth in Ireland is derived from Lugus. This deity was supposed to be a
god with a human form; the same authority cites five continental towns
thought to have derived their names from the same source, but he does
not seem to have noticed that of Lugo in Galicia.[281]
Such was the importance of Lugo under the Romans in the time of Pliny,
that more than a hundred and sixty-six free persons are said to have
come to Lugo to act as judges in public causes. When the Sueves made
themselves masters of Galicia in the fourth and fifth centuries, they
made Lugo the centre of their government, and their kings held their
Court there. During the days of the Goths the town lost its former
greatness, and was reduced till its only importance was that which it
gained from being the seat of a Catholic bishopric. During the Arab
invasion even the churches of Lugo suffered destruction, the inhabitants
were scattered, and her bishop was taken prisoner; but in 740 King
Alfonso I. came to Lugo and began restorations. After the death of this
king, Bishop Odoario continued the work that had been begun.
During the sixth century Lugo was for some time the seat of a
Metropolitan. At a Church Council held at Braga in 572, Nitigisco, the
bishop, signed himself Metropolitan of Lugo. Several important Church
Councils were also held at Lugo. In the days of her Metropolitan
importance, Lugo had no less than fourteen churches under her sway, and
these comprised a very large territory. Her power and influence were
great; she watched over the public peace, she helped the cities when
they were attacked by outside foes, and encouraged them to strengthen
their bulwarks; her powers over the interests of the citizen were almost
regal for more than a century, though the people were never unanimous in
their approval of so much power being vested in the Church, and the
nobles were continually struggling to throw off the yoke of the
Mitre.[282]
When and how Lugo lost the dignity of being a Metropolitan See is not
known, but it was some time between 1095 and 1113, during the
Pontificate of Calixtus II. Another honour which was conceded to this
town in the remote past, and which she still retains, was the remarkable
privilege of exposing continually the Sacrament of the Eucharist upon
the chief altar of her Cathedral. The exact origin of this privilege has
been sought in vain, but those who have looked into the matter most
carefully are of the opinion that it probably dates from the Council of
Lugo held in 569, and that it was established as a protest against the
heresy of Priscillian, which threatened at that time to dominate
Galicia. Acuña, in his _Historiæ Eclesiastica de los Arzobispos de
Braga_, has the following passage: “Por que na mesma Cidade em algum
destes dous Concileos se decretou é estableceu à verdadeira prescença de
Chisto Noso Deus neste Divinissimo è Altisimo Sacramento à quem os
hereges d’aquelle tempo tanto contradiziao.”[283] An early reference to
the exposition of the Sacrament at Lugo occurs in a document bearing the
date 1130, which states that the Divine Mysteries were celebrated
_nocturnæ diurnis temporibus_ in the Cathedral at Lugo. And in 1621 the
Bishop of Lugo wrote to Pope Gregory XV. that they had had “on the chief
altar of the Cathedral the most holy Sacrament ever since the time of
the condemnation of the heretics.”
From other ancient documents it is known that the Host was exposed in a
crystal box, and in such a manner that it could be seen by every one who
entered the cathedral. Large sums of money were contributed from time to
time by the kings and princes of Galicia in connection with this
privilege. A Count of Lemos gave, in 1672, a donation of seventy pounds
weight of gold. In March 1669 a decree was passed that the Kingdom of
Galicia should contribute 1500 ducats annually, and in later years the
State assigned an annual payment of 15,000 pesetas towards the expenses
of this privilege to Lugo. There still exists in the archives of Lugo a
document bearing the date 1734, in which the King of Spain conceded an
annual payment of 400 pesetas from the Kingdom of New Spain towards the
veneration of the Holy Sacrament of the Cathedral of Lugo. The most
recent event in this connection occurred in 1897, when on 18th June the
Pope granted to the Lugo clergy the privilege of celebrating the Holy
Sacrament every Thursday throughout the year, except the Thursdays which
should fall upon Feast Days.
Until quite recently the glass case containing the consecrated bread of
the Eucharist stood upon a curious altar stone--an Obsidian stone said
to have been brought from South America; the stone is now kept in the
sacristy. On examination of it, I found that it had the appearance of a
small block of black marble, but was in reality a block of volcanic
glass; it reflected my face like a mirror.
In 1772 the Archbishop of Saragossa presented Lugo with an exquisitely
worked casket studded with precious stones, and in this the Sacrament
was manifested until a thief got into the Cathedral and stole it on 8th
December 1854. Another casket was thereupon provided by public
subscription; it was the work of the famous artist Ramirez de Arellano,
and has been in use since 3rd May 1859. It is a very beautiful piece of
work in the plateresque style, representing Faith triumphant over
Heresy, containing a chalice covered with diamonds, emeralds, and other
precious stones, amongst which there are no less than fifteen hundred
specimens of the topaz.
Molina mentions a possible connection between the continual exposition
of the Sacrament at Lugo and the suppression of Arianism, but he adds
that he has heard of a more likely explanation, namely, that at one time
all the cathedrals in Spain shared the privilege of Lugo, but that after
the invasion of the Moors Lugo was the only privileged cathedral,
because she alone had not been desecrated by the common enemy. In
another place Molina describes the arms of Galicia as “a chalice
containing the Host, because Galicia alone was not conquered by the
Moors.”
Lugo Cathedral was begun in 1129 in accordance with a plan prepared by
Raimundo de Monforte, whose son succeeded him in the superintendence of
the work. According to the best authorities, the Cathedral is, in the
main, a copy of that of Santiago de Compostela, but a copy on a much
simpler scale. As Lamperez points out, its low naves do not run into the
naves of the transept, and the latter has barrel vaultings. The whole
architecture of this edifice shows a vacillation, a wavering of
conception which has produced a strange mixture of style,--bordering on
originality; this very result is in itself a curious study. Here we see
all the changes of style that occurred between the beginning of the
twelfth and the middle of the nineteenth century. Villa-Amil calls it a
compendium of the history of architecture.[284] In the arms of the
transept we have the Romanesque style, and it is also seen in the
vaulting of the lateral naves: in the rest of the naves we have a fine
example of the Transition, and in the head of the church we have an
important example of the Gothic style as it was interpreted in
Galicia--the Gallegan Gothic. The _Capilla del Pilar_ and the lateral
portico furnish us with good examples of the plateresque style, so also
do the two large _retablos_ at the ends of the transept. The upper
portion of the lower is Græco-Roman, of the earliest period of its
restoration; while the sacristy and the wood-carving of the choir stalls
are in the decadent taste of Philip IV.’s day. The Chapel of Our Lady of
the Large Eyes is a sumptuous example of the Borrominesque, and the
principal façade exhibits an interesting example of the bad taste of the
second period of the Restoration. The whole is a remarkably harmonious
mixture of all the mediæval styles, but the transept is too narrow and
too dark. Although that part of the town which is within the walls is
mostly on the same level, the Cathedral stands in a slight hollow, so
that its domination of the eminence on which the town is built is less
complete than it should have been. Instead of standing out like our
York Cathedral, it seems to be oppressed and choked by the surrounding
streets and houses.
The lateral façade possesses considerable architectural interest; it has
a Gothic portico, the vaulting of which is richly ribbed. The double
doors are within a Romanesque archway, over which there hangs, like a
medallion, an archaic statue of Christ, quite Byzantine in the position
of the feet, and with a stone halo _veseca piscis_, and a crown and a
cruciform nimbus. This statue reminds me strongly of the figure of King
David to be seen in the _Puerta de las Platerias_ at Santiago. The
lintel of the door is composed of two semicircular arches, with a Latin
inscription on the pendant.
The beautiful wood-carving of the choir stalls is by Francisco Moure of
Orense, the artist of the famous reredos in the Jesuit College at
Monforte. Risco speaks of these stalls in “España Sagrada” as the most
beautifully carved stalls in the kingdom; they are famous for the good
taste displayed in their design, as well as for the actual beauty of
their execution. Cean Bermúdez was another who praised them exceedingly.
Villa-Amil tells us that their cost was five thousand ducats.
Until the fourteenth century none but bishops were interred within this
Cathedral; even the greatest nobles had to lie in the cemetery. The most
interesting bit of sculpture within the edifice is the marble
sarcophagus of Froila, which was moved from its original place in the
_Capilla del Pilar_ about thirty years ago; it has a prismatic cover
with a triangular base, and its ornamentation is funicular. On its front
is a curious piece of bas-relief, representing a naked corpse suspended
in a grave-cloth held by two angels, while the Eternal Father is
represented in the clouds above touching the body with His right hand
and giving it His blessing. At the head of the sarcophagus, on the
cover, there is a quaint figure of a seated monk engaged in reading.
In the lateral naves there are some elegant Romanesque windows (now
closed up), and the capitals beneath the arches are adorned with
interesting sculpture; here the chess pattern ornamentation is very much
in evidence.
In a handsome eighteenth-century chapel adorned with stone arabesques
and crowned with a cupola, built in the year 1726, is to be seen the
curious stone statue known as “the Virgin with the Large Eyes”--_Virgen
de los Ojos Grandes_--which St. James is said to have left at Lugo when
he founded the original Cathedral. It is supposed to be the oldest image
in Spain after that of the _Virgen del Pilar_, at Saragossa. The Virgin
holds a Child in her arms. I did not think her eyes unnaturally large.
Villa-Amil says that it takes fourteen men to move this statue: it now
stands upon an elaborate Churrigueresque throne. The Virgin’s crown
sparkles with precious stones; it is a comparatively new one, and was
placed upon her head by the Bishop of Lugo about three years ago.
The Convent of San Francisco, at Lugo, is said to have been founded by
St. Francis of Assisi when he was returning home after his pilgrimage to
the sepulchre of St. James. The cloister of the present building bears
the date 1452, and an inscription on the arch which separates the
central nave from the right arm of the transept tells us that the church
was not completed earlier than 1510. The plan of the church is a Latin
cross, or, as Villa-Amil calls it, a _tau_, for the cross has
practically no head, only a poligonal apse with two smaller apses, one
on either side. This kind of apse is rather rare. Street compared them
to those of the Frari in Venice, and wrote of them as follows: “These
apses are remarkable for having an angle in the centre, whilst their
windows have a bar of tracery across them, transom fashion, at mid
height. It is certainly a very curious coincidence that in both these
particulars it resembles closely the fine church of the Frari at
Venice.” Villa-Amil reminds us, however, that the apses of Santo Domingo
at Ribadavia have the same angle. All three apses are covered with
fan-shaped vaulting, the ribs of which rest upon side columns. The
interior of this church was originally decorated with frescoes, and the
remains of them are still to be seen: as frescoes are very rare in
Spain, they are rather noteworthy. In each of the apses there are two
curious sepulchral arches; these are both Gothic. The statues of several
of them have been destroyed, but there are still three effigies of
knights in full armour.
With regard to the cloister of this monastery, Villa-Amil declares that
it has not its equal either in Spain or anywhere else. It is a strange
mixture of the Gothic and Romanesque styles, but the latter predominates
throughout. The nearest approach to it in Galicia is the cloister of
_Tojosutos_, near Noya.[285] It is indeed sad to think of the way in
which this interesting monastery has been neglected, and to note the
state of dilapidation into which it has been allowed to fall. The fact
is that the town of Lugo seems to have got left behind in the race for
civilisation and improvement; she has fallen out of the beaten track,
and life and energy have gone from her. Even her beautiful Cathedral
gives the visitor an impression of neglect, if not of decay; and this
may in some way account for the erroneous impression that George Borrow
received of it. “The Cathedral church itself is a small, mean building,”
... he wrote. I am convinced that if Borrow had entered the Cathedral
but for a moment he could never have described it as either small or
mean. But we must remember, too, the remarkable fact that neither Ford
nor Borrow had any eye for architecture. Carrying their writings with
me, and reading their descriptions on the spot, I was continually
astounded at their utter blindness in this respect. Borrow was right,
however, when he wrote: “It is singular enough that Lugo, at present a
place of very little importance, should at one period have been the
capital of Spain.”
Another interesting monastery is that of Santo Domingo, which is now
inhabited by some nuns of the Augustine Order. This also is a mixture of
Romanesque and Early Gothic.
Lugo contains many traces of the old Roman days, but she has as yet no
museum to shelter them. Her Roman inscriptions have many of them been
built into the town walls at various periods of its restoration. Many
persons still repair to her medicinal baths for the cure of scrofulous
disease, and within the bathing-house part of the wall of the Roman
baths described by Pliny may still be seen. According to Barros Sivelo,
there are also some remains of the Roman prison, but I had not time to
search for these.
The province of Lugo is said to be the most rainy part of Galicia, which
is saying a great deal, seeing that Galicia is the most rainy part of
Spain. The streets of Lugo are constantly enveloped in an impenetrable
white mist during about eight months of the year; but when the sun does
shine, there are splendid views to be obtained on all sides.
In the year 1896 a great Roman Catholic gathering took place at Lugo
under the title of “Second Spanish Eucharistic Congress.”[286] Numerous
religious meetings were held under its auspices, at which there were
often more than six thousand people. Church dignitaries from many parts
of Europe attended this Congress, and the printed account of the
proceedings, of the speeches made and the papers read, form a bulky
volume. Alas, that after such a revival Lugo should have once more
fallen back into her former state of inertia!
From our hotel window we overlooked the principal square of the town
with its tree-encircled fountain in the centre. One side of the square
is taken up by the handsome _Casa de Ayuntamiento_ or municipal
buildings, which have a handsome eighteenth-century front and a high
clock tower which is one of the principal architectural ornaments of the
town. The front windows of the first storey rest upon an arcade of eight
arches which forms a cool shelter from the blazing sun in summer and a
protection from the ceaseless rains of winter. A funeral party crossed
the square on the afternoon of our arrival at Lugo, and we looked down
upon a procession composed of forty men, each carrying a lighted candle.
Before them was carried a black banner preceded by two crosses raised
aloft upon black poles. The coffin was borne by four men, while two more
on either side held on to a black ribbon, or streamer, the other end of
which was attached to a corner of the coffin. Six priests followed the
coffin, singing as they went. Behind the priests came a crowd of poor
people, including many women and children.
The next morning we looked out upon a bright and busy scene, for it was
Lugo’s market day, and the people from all the neighbouring villages had
come in to sell their wares. Baskets of oranges, local cheeses, and
onions attracted our attention. Amongst the crowd women walked about
with pitchers of water balanced sideways on their heads, not with
brass-bound pails as in other parts of Galicia.
After our second visit to the Cathedral we passed through a gateway in
the old Roman wall over which there was a figure of St. James on
horseback, and soon found ourselves in the more modern part of the town.
A wide carriage road encircles the walls, and the circuit makes a
pleasant drive in fine weather.
About fifty kilometres distant from Lugo, in a green valley surrounded
on all sides by mountains, lies the town of Mondoñedo. This town is not
without its interest to students of Galicia, but as there is no railway
to it, tourists seldom find their way thither. The Cathedral of San
Martin at Mondoñedo is said to date from the year 1114. The sacristy is
decorated with interesting frescoes about which a good deal has been
written. It has three naves divided by Corinthian columns, and its form
is that of a Latin cross, within which are no less than twenty altars,
the largest of which is dedicated to San Rosando, and was consecrated in
1462. A cloister joins the Cathedral to the episcopal palace. Above the
principal façade, which is in the Corinthian style, rise two fine bell
towers.