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Mamer Castle is the town hall for the commune of Mamer, in south-western Luxembourg. It is made up of four buildings, set in recently landscaped surroundings. At the main entrance, there is a sculpture of Nicolas Frantz, two-time Tour de France winner, and Josy Barthel, Luxembourg's only Olympic gold medallist, both of whom were born in Mamer.
A castle was originally built in Mamer in the 10th century. By the French Revolutionary Wars, it had fallen into ruin, and was seized and sold off by the occupying French forces in 1798 to Thierry de Bastogne. Police chief Frederic François built a new castle on the site in 1830, surrounded by a 2-metre high wall. It passed hands to Jacques Fischer and Julie Kremer in 1934.
References:Roman Walls of Lugo are an exceptional architectural, archaeological and constructive legacy of Roman engineering, dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The Walls are built of internal and external stone facings of slate with some granite, with a core filling of a conglomerate of slate slabs and worked stone pieces from Roman buildings, interlocked with lime mortar.
Their total length of 2117 m in the shape of an oblong rectangle occupies an area of 1.68 ha. Their height varies between 8 and 10 m, with a width of 4.2 m, reaching 7 m in some specific points. The walls still contain 85 external towers, 10 gates (five of which are original and five that were opened in modern times), four staircases and two ramps providing access to the walkway along the top of the walls, one of which is internal and the other external. Each tower contained access stairs leading from the intervallum to the wall walk of town wall, of which a total of 21 have been discovered to date.
The defences of Lugo are the most complete and best preserved example of Roman military architecture in the Western Roman Empire.
Despite the renovation work carried out, the walls conserve their original layout and the construction features associated with their defensive purpose, with walls, battlements, towers, fortifications, both modern and original gates and stairways, and a moat.
Since they were built, the walls have defined the layout and growth of the city, which was declared a Historical-Artistic Ensemble in 1973, forming a part of it and becoming an emblematic structure that can be freely accessed to walk along. The local inhabitants and visitors alike have used them as an area for enjoyment and as a part of urban life for centuries.
The fortifications were added to UNESCO"s World Heritage List in late 2000 and are a popular tourist attraction.