The "Praza Maior de Ourense" is old downtown, where the most interesting historical
streets and the heart of the Ourense of S. XIX come together. It
has soportales of the SS. XVII, XVIII and XIX and in the center
are the Provincial Archaeological Museum (Episcopal Palace) and the
Consistorial House, raised in S. XIX, with fused iron balconies in
which they appear the arms of the city. The Episcopal
Palace was raised by the bishop Don Diego de Velasco in S. XII and, in
the later century, it was reconstructed by Don Lorenzo. The
museum lodges great amount of interesting pieces on history and life
of the province of Ourense from prehistory to the SS. XVIII and
XIX. One thinks that the marble columns of the church of "Santa
Maria the Mother" are rest pertaining to the old Basilica of the
Suevos, of the S. I SAW, and that in the place where is the Episcopal
Palace the Palace of Kings Suevos de Ourense was placed.
Ourense is the capital of the province
of Ourense. It is the third Galician city by population and is
located in the Southeastern of Galicia, happening the Miño river
passs by this city. The valley of the Miño in the zone of
Orense already was inhabited at the time castreña as they prove the
establishments of Castro de Oira, San Tome' and Valdegola as well as
the original establishment in the proximities from Ace Burgas, the
thermal water sources around which the Roman city was satisfied. The origin of the city is Roman, exist doubts on the
etimología of topónimo Orense/Ourense. The first theory signal
that was baptized by the Romans possibly like "the city of gold"
(Auriense) by its enormous
abundance of this metal, which turned it an important city of the
Roman province of Hispania until their reserves of the appreciated
gilded metal were exhausted, that could be found in the course of the
own Miño river. Another theory postulates that the name of the
city came from Latin aquae urente ("burning waters"), or of germanic warmse ("hot lake"), by its well-known
thermal water sources, known like Burgas (name derived from low Latin burca, that means battery). Despite this discussion the certain thing is that during
the Roman time a bridge was constructed on the Miño, protected by a
small trimming, that comprised of a branch of the Route XVIII that
united Brácara and Asturica Augusta and that the population center
was in the surroundings of the present Greater Seat. more panoramas Region of Ourense > >
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