| Monforte de Lemos | |||
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Monforte de Lemos
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| Coordinates: 42°30′59″N 7°30′58″W / 42.51639°N 7.51611°WCoordinates: 42°30′59″N 7°30′58″W / 42.51639°N 7.51611°W | |||
| Country |  Spain |
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| Autonomous community |  Galicia |
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| Province | Lugo | ||
| Comarca | Terra de Lemos | ||
| Government | |||
| - Alcalde | Severino Rodríguez Díaz (2007) (BNG) | ||
| Area | |||
| - Total | 199.5 km2 (77 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 360 m (1,181 ft) | ||
| Population (2008) | |||
| - Total | 19,486 | ||
| - Density | 97.7/km2 (253/sq mi) | ||
| - Demonym | Monfortino, na | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 27400 | ||
| Official language(s) | |||
| Website | Official website | ||
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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The area around the town has been inhabited long before, with a 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 Fruela Díaz from the House of Lemos, for the town to be rebuilt over the ruins. The town would, from there, flourish as an agricultural market.
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, date unknown, due to the loss of the Monastery's documents in a fire dated in the nineteenth 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 Monasteries 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 revolt, a revolt that confronted the nobility with the general population, in the second half of fifteenth century and which essentially was a civil war. But that early episode was repressed by the Count of Lemos, the lord of the land, who 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 off oaks".
One of the most remarkable men on the city's history were Cardinal Rodrigo de Castro who 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 square in front of it was known as "Plaza de la Compañía" (The Society Square), when the building was occupied by the Society of Jesus, which managed the school until their expulsion order from Spain, after which the Escolapios' Order took over.
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 apparent lack of physical support. The stair is made in one marble piece, and supported on air by an ingenious game of strengths. 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 a grave is hidden behind the picture, that of Cardinal Rodrigo's mother. So he is eternally praying in front of his mother's grave.
A second remarkable man to leave his giant step on the city's history, Pedro Fernandez De Castro, Seventh count of Lemos, is known as a great promoter of the arts and a patron of artists and writers, among them Cervantes, Góngora, Lope de Vega, The Argensola brothers, and Quevedo. Quevedo called the count "the 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 and the count.
He variously served as president of Council of the Indies, the Supreme Council of Italy (overseeing the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily) and as Viceroy of Naples. His wife, Catalina de La Cerda y Sandoval, was responsible for the building of the Santa Clara Convent, which owns one of the most important Spanish sacred art Museums, placed on the historic side of the city; the most important piece of the museum is a reclining 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 gives the impression that one is seeing the real Jesus after crucifixion. Other pieces of the museum consist on saint's relics and papal attire and objects, among them a bejeweled papal 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". 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. Also, he helped to introduce silk production into the town's economy, business which would develop in future years.
On recent times, one of the most remarkable facts was the inauguration of the railroad lines by King Alfonso XII in 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 title 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 was filled of cultural Associacions, politic and ideological movements; local newspapers and magazines took place on the city's life. One of the "Irmandades da fala" (Language brotherhood), an important Galician association was placed in the city.
The civil war was a brutal time, 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.
In the next decades, the engine 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, there seems a light recovery, and 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.
A Railroad Museum has been created in the old train factory for the purpose of maintaining and displaying old locomotives and rail cars (including an operating steam driven locomotive), to honor the strong railroader tradition in the city, and to add a more modern dimension to the cultural and historical treasures the city has to offer.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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   | Concello de Monforte de Lemos - Monforte de Lemos... Capital da Ribeira Sacra |
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