Logbook · 28 places

Gate of Charles V

Viveiro, Mariña Occidental, Lugo

1 Villages · 11 Monuments · 5 Nature · 7 Activities · 3 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

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Gate of Charles V

Monument · Viveiro, Mariña Occidental, Lugo

Also called Porta Maior or Porta do Castelo da Ponte, it replaced in 1548, the work of the stonemason Pedro Pedroso, an earlier 13th-century gate damaged by the action of the tides. Raised in homage to Emperor Charles I, it is in Renaissance-plateresque style, with a central round arch flanked by the coats of arms of the city and of Galicia, the royal coat of arms beneath a bust of the emperor, six arrow-slits and three corner turrets; on the reverse it holds a plateresque camarín with the 18th-century image of Saint Roch, venerated for having freed the town from the plague. The wall had five gates, of which only three survive. During the Peninsular War it served as a defensive point: on 18 February 1809 Viveiro was attacked on two flanks at once, one of them through this gate, by troops coming from Ferrol. Declared a Monumento Nacional (former heritage protection category in Spain) in 1942, it is one of the three surviving gates of the wall.

Photo: FirkinCat (CC BY-SA 3.0 es)

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