Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain

by Annette M. B. Meakin

From Vigo we went by train to Tuy. Tuy is a mediæval, walled city rising in the midst of a fertile valley through which the river Miño flows, dividing the two kingdoms of Portugal and Spain. The old walls have almost disappeared, and the houses of Tuy now spread far beyond them, making altogether a population of some five thousand three hundred inhabitants. At the top of the conical hill which the city covers, stands the Cathedral, looking more like a castle than a church, with its castellated walls and its fortress towers.

Tuy is said to have been founded by Greek colonists, and to have derived its name from Tyde, i.e. Diomedes, king of Ætolea (not of Thrace), whose parents were Tydea and Delphyla.[266] Morales thought he recognised as part of a Greek pillar a piece of stone fifteen feet in diameter which he discovered in a garden at Tuy. The same writer also alludes to the wrestling matches still kept up by the inhabitants of this town. He remarks that they wrestled in his day with such violence, and squeezed each other so violently in the contest, that their very lives were in jeopardy.

When the Romans took possession of Tuy, they moved the town from the hill to the valley, thinking that once on lower ground it would require less supervision. It was King Ferdinand II. who brought the town back to its original hill and made it a walled city.

The river Miño brings Tuy a rich supply of fish, amongst which are fine salmon, lampreys, and trout. The vines of Tuy make a better wine than those of Ribadavia, and every kind of fruit grows in its fertile valley. From the north-west there flows into the Miño, close to the town, a little river the sands of which contain gold, and for this reason it has received the name of Ouro. Opposite to the Ouro another river joins the Miño; this is called Molinos, because of its many flour-mills. The land in this neighbourhood fetches a very high price, on account of its remarkable fertility. The soil is sandy, and every hillock is fringed with pine trees.

The railway station of Tuy is on the line that runs from Orense to Vigo, and the town itself is nearly two miles from the station. By a branch line across the Miño the Gallegan railway is connected with that of Northern Portugal. The junction is effected by means of a very fine international bridge over the river, which is known as the Puente Internacional. On the southern bank of the Miño there rises another hill city confronting Tuy, the Portuguese fortress of Valença.

Although the antiquity of Tuy is traced back to the days of Troy and Diomedes, and although we know that the Romans struggled desperately before they could master it, there is very little mention of Tuy in the history of their times. In the days of the Goths, King Witiza is said to have established himself there and to have raised the town to a position of great opulence. During the Middle Ages, after it had been attacked both by Moors and Norman pirates, Doña Teresa, a natural daughter of Alfonso VI., who was mistress of Portugal in 1220, claimed Tuy as part of her dowry; but her sister, Doña Urraca, appeared on the spot with a powerful army and forced her to evacuate it and retire across the Miño. From that time on throughout the Middle Ages, the two cities of Tuy and Valença scowled at one another across the water—the sentinels of two clashing powers. Later on, during the War of Independence, French troops occupied the citadel of Tuy, and the town was blockaded by the Spaniards in 1809. The French General Martinière made a successful sally, and the Spanish forces were driven back at first; but on April 16, 1809, the French were forced to evacuate the fortress.

Tuy was one of the seven provinces into which the ancient kingdom of Galicia was divided. In 1833, when a new division of Spanish territory took place, Tuy became part of the province of Pontevedra. As a diocese Tuy is now a suffragan of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

Molina (writing in the sixteenth century) stated that “Tuy has always been famous for the erudition of its bishops.” There was a grand council of bishops held in the Cathedral of San Bartolomé at Tuy in the days of Archbishop Gelmirez, about 1122.[267] Whether the existing church of San Bartolomé is the actual one in which that council was held, is not known, but at any rate we know that this edifice is the oldest church in Tuy, and, what is more, it is the oldest cathedral in the whole of Galicia. The present Cathedral of Tuy, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, crowns the summit of the mediæval citadel; but San Bartolomé is situated lower down in the plain, and dates from the time when Tuy was in the valley. San Bartolomé has three naves, each of the two lateral ones being separated from the central nave by four rectangular piers supporting vaulted arches. At the end of each nave is a chapel. The apse chapels are covered with half-barrel vaulting. The ornamentation is very plain, and shows, in the opinion of Casanova, distinct traces of Oriental and Norman influence. The bases of the columns are decorated with deep semicircular concave mouldings and plinths resting upon the feet of monsters. The capitals are sculptured with classic leaves interwoven with living forms, human and grotesque, with birds and animals, singly and in groups. Above the abacus there is in many parts the ornamentation known as the chess pattern, and here and there on the imposts we find the billet ornament, or moulding in notches, of which we have a specimen in Lincoln Cathedral. Villa-Amil considers the chess-pattern ornamentation in this church to be one of the most definite signs of its antiquity, and at the same time he points out the close resemblance in form, dimensions, and ornamentation which this edifice bears to the Cathedral of Mondoñedo, which dates from the eleventh century.

This church has on the exterior of its northern wall an inscription which has been the occasion of much controversy among archæologists and epigraphists. No one has been able to decipher it, but Señor Manuel Lago of Lugo has suggested that the characters may be Oriental, and written, like Chinese, from right to left.

Here are drawings showing the sculpture of some of the capitals, for which I am indebted to Señor Villa-Amil. On one capital is depicted a dinner party. Three of the guests are standing with their hands upon the table as if about to begin the repast: one of them is a woman. On the table may be seen a large dish, in front of the woman, and a smaller one in front of each of the men: a knife with a wooden or bone handle is also distinctly visible beside one of the plates. A soldier, or sentinel, stands to the right of the table, and confronting a man in the garb of a monk who appears to have just arrived upon the scene, lays the blade of his sword upon the newcomer’s shoulder in a most threatening manner, as if to warn him that he interrupts the banquet at his peril. The whole grouping of this piece of sculpture is most dramatic and lifelike. The work probably dates from the tenth century, if not farther back still. Visitors who wish to see the most interesting capitals must hunt for them, often in the darkest corners, and with the aid of a candle.