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 was repopulated the site 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 Caliabria 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).
Artistic Works
During the 15th Century, a perhaps 35-panel series of artworks (today, 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, where they reside today.
Napoleonic Wars
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 July 9, 1810 after a 24-day siege. The 5,500-man Spanish garrison of Field Marshal Don Andreas de Herrasti put up a gallant defense,
