Photo credit: TripAdvisor, 2018.
Podcasts are time capsules not only back to normality but also back to the 3rd century BC when the first stones of Lugo’s Roman past were just being laid.
Let’s go backwards in time today, with some interviews my student Artai recorded just two months ago— with the art historian Guillermo Tort Vázquez.
Hidden gems we discuss:
Domus do Mitreo — the house of a roman centurion from around the 3rd century, includes a curious altar to the sun god Mithras.
Virtual Visit: https://adomusdomitreo.com/en/multimedia-en/
Information about the Persian god Mithra(s): https://www.ancient.eu/Mithra/
Galician Baroque Paintings in Lugo’s Cathedral: Galicia’s Baroque version of the Sistine Chapel inside the Cathedral from 1776 by the artist José de Terán
Restoration Process: La Voz de Galicia: https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/firmas/2012/01/08/lugo-recupera-esplendor-barroco-rehabilitacion-catedral/0003_201201G8P39991.htm
Casa dos Mosaicos Lugo: Roman mosaics preserved beneath our feet (especially on my daily walk to work).
https://www.spain.info/en_US/que-quieres/arte/museos/lugo/casa_mosaicos.html
The Provincial Museum of Lugo: Built into a 15th century convent. Includes contemporary art from local artists as well as courtyards and a reconstructed model of a 3rd century galician kitchen.
Museum: https://museos.xunta.gal/en/provincial-lugo
Castelo de Pambre: 14th century castle on the outskirts of Lugo
Camino Website :https://www.caminodesantiago.gal/en/recurso/7186/castelo-de-pambre
Wikipedia:https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castillo_de_Pambre
Santa Eulalia de Boveda: Pagan temple to Mithras turned into a Christian chapel. Underground pool + bird frescoes and ancient columns. I’m dying to go!
Episode IV Transcript
[Intro]
Where are you right now? When are you? These are questions all too common in the COVID-19 quarantine.
If you’re listening now in the spring of 2020, chances are you’re stuck at home, to some degree. Some Americans are stuck, but they’re not as stuck as many people in Spain—Spaniards are just emerging from a brutal 50 days in quarantine.
One of the things that all of us share especially in these times, no matter where or when we are, is a renewed appreciation for cultural objects: the music, art, movies, and all other forms of created content that give us laughter and interest and distraction from our isolated states.
And I love how in the midst of all this, a podcast can act as a time machine: take us back to other lovely moments when we could all go out for tapas and a drink and things were normal.
A podcast can also take us back in time through history—all the way back to the 3rd century, when the first stones of lugo’s roman past were just being laid.
Let’s go backwards in time today, with some interviews my student Artai recorded when things were normal just two months ago— with the art historian Guillermo Tort Vázquez.
Chloe: Here, Artai’s introducing Guillermo, saying that they’ll talk about Lugo’s specific cultural heritage. Artai points out that not all of Lugo’s rich culture lies in its famous Roman Wall that surrounds the city or in its “termas” the Roman baths. He urges Guillermo to talk about parts of Lugo that might not be so well-known and that would be really interesting to hear about.
Guillermo [English]: I love Galician heritage, truly it’s a shame that not more people know about it, things so simple and central such as Domus do Mitreo — the house of a roman centurion from around the 3rd century. It is opposite Lugo’s cathedral, and when Lugo’s wall was built, it nearly destroyed the house—but there are a few cross-sections of the house preserved perfectly in the museum today. and even though now we can’t travel there, we can go on a virtual tour on the museum’s website. It’s called domus— latin for house, Mitreo, m i t r e o.
Chloe: One of the notable features of the domus is the well-preserved altar— the ara—with a statue of the sun god Mithras. An altar to this particular god is unusual to find in Lugo because he comes from a mystic religious tradition not usually associated with Galicia—instead, he comes from the Persians and zoroastrianism. This statue of Mithras buried in Lugo, from Guillermo’s point of view, has an incalculable historical worth.
Chloe: He says, we have a jewel—xoilla—in Lugo’s center, inside the wall, that no one goes to, and is more known for the bars and parties nearby than its value as a historical point of interest.
Chloe: Guillermo continues: Speaking of hidden gems, inside the cathedral— he clarifies, he’s not going to talk about the cathedral itself, but something historians found years ago— they recovered some absolutely gorgeous paintings from the 1700s [Guillermo excerpt in Galician]… with these works, he says, we could be talking about Galicia’s baroque version of the sistine chapel by the artist José de Terán: the colors, the size, and the elaborate display of the trinity and surrounding local saints are in excellent condition.
Chloe: Well, maybe we can’t go now, but that’ll go on my list of things to do once we can travel normally again. In the meantime, I think I’ll google the famous paintings of galician cathedrals to pass the time. Maybe I’ll set one as my zoom background?
Chloe: Around the cathedral, Guillermo tells us, are the places in the ground you can see Roman mosaics (on my way to work every day I’d step over them, literally a window into the past cut into the ground. There’s also the Provincial Museum of Lugo, which Guillermo doesn’t talk about, but it was a place I really enjoyed. The museum is built into a 15th century convent. I spent a lazy Friday wandering the museum, soaking in the contemporary art of local artists as well as the convent’s courtyards and a reconstructed model of a 3rd century Galician kitchen.
Another hidden wonder is the Pambre (p a m b r e) castle: Guillmero tells us it’s this 14th century castle on the outskirts of Lugo, and the journey to it and the 3-euro entrance fee are well worth it. He says you can take your time when you visit it and you’re there in the middle of nowhere —just gorgeous scenery and you—on top of the battlements of a medieval castle.
A bit on the outskirts of Lugo, we have a small church—Guillermo says today we’re not quite sure about the origin of this chapel, but this chapel is a unique blend of small details from other cultures— Egyptian and Roman. Originally, the church had been a temple of some sort, probably to the sun god Mithras. It’s a small structure with delicate bird frescos that fly and built around a pool—Guillermo says going into a full analysis of the chapel would take him a full thesis…
Chloe: Guillermo’s final hidden gem is the “castro” Viladonga, spelled v il do nga, a spectacular example of the castro history that galicia has to offer and one of the best-preserved.: the word castro refers to Bronze and Iron age “hill fort” settlements, and there are many such “castro” remains scattered around Galicia. To archeologists, these castros represent some of the oldest evidence from Celtic Cultures. This particular one in Lugo shows evidence that the Romans conquered the region because the ruins represent a blend of the Galician and the Toman: dwellings in circular, traditional Galician “castro” shape are mixed with rectangular Roman structures. Though only stones remain, this place marks an important transitional period for Galicians as they were “romanized.”
It’s worth a visit, Guillermo says, because you can basically walk all over history and imagine yourself in the past .
Hopefully this time capsule of a podcast has helped you discover a side to Galicia’s past you hadn’t heard before—or maybe it helped you re-discover it in a new light, just as the archeologists did as they uncovered the castro, or even the worshippers who encountered the pagan temple to Mithras and re-worked its avian frescoes into those of a Christian church. ..
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What things are you finding in your isolation? What new skills are you learning, what family recipes are you baking anew, what new conversations have you brought to light with your coworkers as you work from home?
In my case, this time in quarantine has given me the opportunity to rediscover hidden “gems” in my room (nevermind my city): beloved rock collections from my childhood, favorite picture books laden with color, beautiful piano sheet music that till now had been stuffed away in storage. I’m sure I’m not alone: all of us around the world have had to turn inward and find ways to appreciate things within our own walls to find life. We’re unearthing, repainting, rewriting, remembering. As we’ve learned today, Lugo has enough hidden gems to fill volumes; however, so, too do we.
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Thank you so much for listening to Episode IV of the Pintxos Podcast— this episode’s linguistic questioning took an art history root and was such a blast to research and translate. I want to thank Guillermo for such an enlightening interview—grazas, Guillermo, aprendín moito. thank you to my Sales student Artai for being well-connected around Lugo and for handing me this awesome interview. The show’s soundtrack Alejandro Cortiñas, my sales student, as well, and as always, graciñas to A Banda da Loba, for their music “Adondar a lingua,” that bookends my commentary. If you want to find more hidden gems, listen to the rest of our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.fm.
I’ll talk to you later on Episode 5! Bye for now.
chlo-etry 