Ciudad Rodrigo is a small town in Salamanca Province in western Spain.
The site of Ciudad Rodrigo, perched atop a rocky rise on the right bank of the River �gueda, has been occupied since the Neolithic Age. Known as Mirobriga to the Celtic people known as the Vettones, the town was conquered by the Romans and renamed Augustobriga in honor of Caesar Augustus. In 1110, Count Rodrigo González Girón repopulated the site and gave it his name: Civitas Roderici.
Ferdinand II of León completed the repopulation of the city. He also walled the city and reconstructed the old Roman bridge spanning the River �gueda. Ferdinand also re-established the bishopric, 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.
Its position as a fortified town on the main road from Portugal to Salamanca made it militarily important in the middle years of the Peninsular War. The French under Michel Ney took Ciudad Rodrigo in 1810 after a 24-day siege. Wellington began his 1812 campaign by taking Ciudad Rodrigo by storm on the night of January 19 - January 20, 1812 after preparatory operations lasting about 10 days. Allied losses were relatively light (about 600 casualties; 125 dead). Wellington then moved on Badajoz, whose taking was a much more bloody affair.
Ciudad Rodrigo is the birthplace of Siglo de Oro writer Feliciano de Silva.
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