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From Gallaecia to the Euro-Region
Roman temple of Santalla or Santa Baia de Bóveda (Lugo)
The Roman religion
A fundamental part of the Roman culture revolved around religiosity. It
is well known that Rome, opposite to other peoples, did not impose its beliefs
on the conquered nations but rather tended to respect their cults and their gods,
incorporating them to the Roman pantheon, in order to facilitate their integration.
This also happened in Gallaecia, where a wide variety of cults can be
appreciated, among which the official Roman religion seems to have been in
a minority position. Some references to it can be found, for instance, in some
milestones. These did not only indicate the distances to the cities that the road
joined, but were also frequently used as a mean for propaganda, introducing
mentions to the emperor who, as it was common, was divinized.
The most extended religiosity examples showed former pre-Roman deities, from
the castro culture, which were incorporated and assimilated to some of the purely
Roman ones. There were plenty of altars with typically Roman formulas and
inscriptions, but offered to local divinities: in Santa Maria da Feira, where there
must have been a sanctuary in the hill that is currently occupied by the castle,
votive inscriptions to the god Bandevelugo Toireco were found.
Many others were dedicated to nymphs
and aquatic deities, as in the “Fonte
do Ídolo” in Braga, dedicated to the
god Tongoenabiago in the 1st century
A.C. Equally interesting is the example
of Ourense. In the Burgas, the thermal
springs of the city, a place of cult was
developed, linked to Revve, the aquatic
deity of the peninsular northwest. An
important number of altars in honour of
Revve Anabaraego were found in the
surroundings of a thermal complex with
a pool where people took advantage
of the healthy virtues of the water. Both
ensembles, in Braga and Ourense,
can be visited with their corresponding
interpretation centre.
The god Larouco was one of the most
relevant in the castro pantheon, and
even a stone representation of him is
maintained, the “idol” of the church
of Vilar de Perdizes, Montalegre, Vila
Real. It is found almost at the foot of
the border mount that is still named
after the divinity. In this same place, an
inscription assimilates the Galician god
to the maximum figure of the Roman
pantheon, Jupiter.
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