Spain Trip Oct 2023 - Part 4 Merida, Extremadura

Moving further south but still in Extremadura is the town of Merida which is filled with amazing Roman ruins. It was an important town back in the day, called Emerita Augusta and founded in 25 BC in the region known as Lusitania. Water was brought to the city from Roman dams nearby via three aqueducts. This shows the size of the Roman city which was similar to the modern day population of nearly 60,000 people. The site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.

Acueducto de los Milagros (Aqueduct of the Miracles) is a remarkable structure, obviously not anywhere near as impressive as the Pont du Gard which is another aqueduct and bridge, but it still has many spans and levels standing. In the picture below is one of the White Stork's nests which are perched up on the top!

I rather wished I had visited this deli shop as we passed by as it looked very interesting.

A model showing the extent of the Roman town in the museum, which we visited later on. Here you can see the following things which we visited: top right outside the city walls is the Aqueduct of Miracles, bottom right are the theatre and the amphitheatre, in the centre are the forum and the Temple of Diana (though I don't know which is which) and on the left, the Roman bridge. The archaelogical site of Moreria is going north from the bridge along the lines of the old city walls.

We first visited the site of the theatre and the amphitheatre. This view is looking at the back of the theatre. There were various copies of statues dotted about; the originals were in the museum.

The amphitheatre. You can see the original seating tiers but there are of course modern stones here and there too - I know that the theatre is used for modern day plays but maybe the amphitheatre is used too.

The theatre - it has been restored in places but many of the stones/pillars are very well preserved.

This mosaic flooring was within the theatre complex and must have been part of a building but I don't recall the name. The walls are painted too.

After a break for lunch we visited the Museum of Roman Art - a modern building that looked rather boring from the outside, but was nothing of the sort on the inside. First we visited the vaults, and on the way down was this well preserved section of Roman road. The building was cleverly built over it.

Inside the vaults it was pretty dark so most of my photos were not worth sharing. There were all sorts of stones, pillars, stone coffins and bits of painted walls like here. I'm not sure if they have been moved from elsewhere - I assume so.

I will continue in the next chapter as we are only halfway through my photos from Merida - and they have been whittled down from well over a hundred as it is!