as as regards ecclesiastical politics, Lugo, one of the
three cities on the Mino River, was as regards civil power. It was the
nominal capital of Galicia, and at one time, in the reign of Alfonso the
Chaste, it was intended to make it the capital of the nascent Spanish
kingdom, but for some reason or other Oviedo was chosen instead as being
more suitable. Since then the city of Lugo has completely fallen into
ruins and insignificance.

It first appears in history when the Romans conquered it from the Celts.
It was their capital and their Holy City; in its centre was Lupa's
Bower, where the Romans built a magnificent temple to Diana. Some
mosaics of this edifice have been discovered recently, and the peculiar
designs prove beyond a doubt that the mythological attributions of the
Celts were made use of and intermingled with those of the Latin
race--not at all a strange occurrence, as Lupa and Diana seem to have
enjoyed many common qualities.

Under the Roman rule, the city walls, remains of which are still
standing in many places, were erected, and Locus Augusti became the
capital of the northern provinces.

All through the middle ages, when really Oviedo had usurped its civil,
and Santiago its religious significance, Lugo was still considered as
being the capital of Galicia, a stronghold against Arab incursions, and
a hotbed of unruly noblemen who lost no opportunity in striking a blow
for liberty against the encroaching power of the neighbouring kingdom of
Asturias, and later on of Leon. When at last the central power of the
Christian kings was firmly established in Leon and Castile, in Lugo the
famous message of adhesion to the dynasty of the Alfonsos was voted, and
the kingdom of Galicia, like that of Asturias, faded away, the shadow of
a name without even the right to have its coat of arms placed on the
national escutcheon.

The ecclesiastical history of the city of Lugo is neither interesting
nor does it differ from that of other Galician towns. Erected to a see
in the fifth century, its cathedral was a primitive basilica destroyed
by the Moors in one of their powerful northern raids in the eighth
century. The legendary bishop Odoario lost no time in building a second
basilica, which met the same fate about two hundred years later, in the
tenth century. Alfonso the Chaste, one of the few kings of Asturias to
take a lively interest in Galician politics, ordered either the
reconstruction of the old basilica or the