9/30 - Las Medulas, Lugo, Santiago de Campostela

Our first stop today was Las Medulas, the site of the largest Roman gold mine, which operated for 200 years starting around 150 AD.  It was not, however the most productive, because the gold came not from veins, but from silt deposited over the eons. One cubic meter of dirt and rock yielded a few specks of gold. There were no nuggets. What made this mine worth visiting was both the visual beauty of the ruined mountain and the amazing hydraulic technique the Romans used to extract the gold.

Without TNT, they had to find a way to blast off the side of the mountain so they could sift the rubble for gold. They dug tunnels into the mountain (vertical with horizontal branches) and diverted water in viaducts and tunnels and filled the newly dug tunnels with water so they exploded outwards and released the composite rock, sand, and clay. Then they used sluices to trap the heavier gold.

Map of the  mountain as it currently is. The red is the residue
of the Roman mining operation.

There were hundreds of chestnut trees on the hill, some as
old as 300 to 500 years.

To keep the trees fruitful, they are topped
regularly, giving them an odd look. This is
one of the older ones.

Our first glimpse of a butte left by the mining.

More stark landscape

The thing that looks like a door is the end of one of the
horizontal tunnels.

This is a large cave-like opening resulting from the pressure
of the tunnel in the photo below.

Most of the houses were old, with slate roofs,
but this one needed some work.

We had lunch at a local restaurant (bean soup, salad, VERY dry ribs, and sort of a layered flan) before getting back on the road to Lugo. This city is the only one in the world to be surrounded by intact Roman walls. They are not totally original, however, having been restored in the late 1970s. We also visited a cathedral (I think it was the one dedicated to St. Mary) which was obviously concerned about the size of its electricity bill because we nearly needed a flashlight to see anything. It was also very austere compared to some of the others we visited, except for a quite flamboyant main altar, which we could only see from an angle, so our photos probably do not do it justice. Aside from walking on the Roman walls, the best part of this stop was the discovery of an ice cream shop that sold Magnum bars.

One of the 10 gates into the old city.

These bump-outs were apparently towers, of which there
were 71.

Lynn on the wall walkway.

Some of the homes had doors opening on top of the walls.

The wall snakes around and follows the
contour of the land.

Fancy exit to the wall on the inside.

Outside of the cathedral

It was really dark and dreary inside. The only
other people were some folks vacuuming and
a couple other tourists.

Not sure what this was about, but it was one of the more
interesting things to look at.

The main altar was pretty impressive.

Back in the bus, we focused on getting to Santiago de Campostela in time for the evening mass that we thought started at 7pm. What I had read was that this mass is so popular with the pilgrims that arriving early was critical because they closed the doors when the cathedral got full. There are several devout Catholics in our group and they really wanted to make it to the mass and we were glad to arrive at our hotel before 6:15. I was interested because of what I had read about the censor, which is so large and heavy that it takes 8 men to maneuver it. When we arrived, we learned that mass was at 7:30, so we thought we were golden when we got to the cathedral at 6:40. It took 10 minutes to find the proper entry and get in and the place was already jam-packed and standing room only. The silver censor hung in the middle, and I contemplated standing there another hour and a half to see it swing over this mob scene and decided that a relaxing time at the hotel was what I really needed, and we left.

Two views of the cathedral (above and below)

We had a lovely dinner at the hotel after mass and the people who stayed reported that they thought it was worthwhile.