Origins '' in Ciudad Rodrigo, built by the
Vettones.|175px|left in the 12th century. (16th century). Ciudad Rodrigo was originally a Celtic village under the name of Mirobriga. The town was later taken by the Romans during the conquest of Lusitania and named Augustobriga. In the 12th century, the site was repopulated by King
Ferdinand II of León, walling it and re-establishing the old Visigothic diocese of Calabria into the new
bishopric as
suffragan of the Diocese of
Santiago de Compostela; it comprised a big part of the province of Salamanca, and a portion of the province of
Cáceres, an act confirmed by
Pope Alexander III in 1175. This led to the construction of the city's cathedral, an architectural hybrid of the
Gothic and late
Romanesque styles. King
Alfonso VIII gave the city of Calabria to the Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1191. The first bishop of whom anything certain is known was called Pedro (1165) and one of the most celebrated was the learned jurist Don
Diego de Covarruvias y Leyva (1560). In the
Middle Ages, Ciudad Rodrigo had a
Jewish community with its own
synagogue. The community retained the right to use the building until late July 1492, shortly before the
expulsion, when it was transferred to the local Confraternity of the Passion. The town also served as a crossing point for Jewish exiles from Castile on their way into neighboring
Portugal.
Artistic works During the 15th century, a series of artworks of perhaps 35-panels (only 26 panels survive), known as the
Retablo (altarpiece) of the Cathedral of the Ciudad Rodrigo was created by
Fernando Gallego, Maestro Bartolomé, and the artists of their workshops. Over the centuries, the works became badly deteriorated. In 1954, they were acquired by the
Samuel H. Kress Foundation which had them fully restored. In 1961, the foundation donated the works to the
University of Arizona Museum of Art in
Tucson, Arizona, where they reside today.
Napoleonic Wars Main articles: Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1810) and Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1812) Its position as a fortified town on the main road from
Portugal to
Salamanca made it militarily important in the middle years of the Napoleonic
Peninsular War. The French Marshal
Michel Ney took Ciudad Rodrigo on 9 July 1810 after a 24-day
siege. The 5,500-man Spanish garrison of Field Marshal Don Andreas de Herrasti put up a gallant defense, surrendering only after French artillery opened a breach in the walls and their infantry were poised for an assault. The Spanish suffered 461 killed and 994 wounded, while 4,000 men and 118 cannon were captured. Ney's VI Corps lost 180 killed and over 1,000 wounded during the siege. The French soldiery then pillaged the city. The siege delayed Marshal
André Masséna's invasion of Portugal by a month. The British General
Wellington began his 1812 campaign by taking Ciudad Rodrigo by storm on the night of 19–20 January 1812, after preparatory operations lasting about 10 days. In these clashes, the British captured the Greater Teson on 8 January and the Lesser Teson on 16 January. Meanwhile, two breaches in the walls had been opened by Wellington's twenty-three 24-lb and four 18-lb siege guns under the command of Captain Alexander Dickson. Major-General
Thomas Picton's 3rd Division assaulted the "greater" breach while
Robert Craufurd's Light Division attacked the "lesser" breach. Allied losses in the siege were 195 killed and 916 wounded, although amongst the dead were Maj-Gens Henry Mackinnon and Craufurd. The 2,000-man French garrison under Brig-Gen Barrié lost 529 killed and wounded, while the rest were captured. The French Army of Portugal lost its entire siege train among the 142 captured cannon. There were two cannons embedded in the wall of the "greater" breach that caused most casualties in the storming. The 88th
Connaught Rangers Regiment took one of the guns while the 45th
Nottinghamshire Regiment took the other. The victory was marred when the British rank and file thoroughly sacked the city, despite the efforts of their officers. The capture of Ciudad Rodrigo allowed Wellington to proceed to
Badajoz, whose taking was a much more bloody affair. In 1812, the then-Viscount Wellington (later created a Duke) was rewarded for his victorious liberation with the hereditary Spanish ducal
victory title of
Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo. Ciudad Rodrigo is also the birthplace of
Siglo de Oro writer
Feliciano de Silva. ==Sights==