“The Roman legacy in Seville” is a journey through the traces of Rome’s passage through the city and its province, which shows the visitor all the Monumental and Artistic Heritage that we treasure of this civilisation that once colonised and directed the known world.
This guide that served us as an inspiration to create this recommended plan is structured according to the routes of communication that the republican, and later imperial, civilisation built. These are the three main routes that go through the different towns of the province of Seville where the Roman legacy is most present: the “Vía de la Plata” (Silver route), the “Ruta Bética Romana” (Roman Baetic Route) and the “Vía Augusta”.
The fact that two of the most important emperors of Rome, Trajan and his adopted son Hadiran, were born and lived in Italica, in Santiponce, in what was once Old Seville, is reason enough to stop and think about what the Roman civilisation meant for our province, what were its vestiges, monuments, uses and traditions that survive to the present day and how all this can be a reason to create a Tourist Route and practice heritage tourism.
Vía Augusta
The last route is the Via Augusta, the longest Roman road, with a total length of 1,500 km. We begin in the town of San Juan de Aznalfarache, which was then called Osset Iulia Constantia, where its Roman remains can be visited both in the Centro de Interpretación del Patrimonio Arqueológico de San Juan (San Juan Archaeological Heritage Interpretation Centre), in the Plaza del Dr. Cariñanos, and in the Sala de los Aljibes (Hall of Tanks), in the Plaza de Otto Engelhardt.
From there, we will go to other towns full of history such as Alcalá de Guadaíra to see the Torre de la Membrilla and the villa located in the area near the Camino de Pelay Correa, with mosaics and productive spaces; the town of Utrera, where we recommend travellers to visit the Puente de las Alcantarillas, of Roman origin, which also includes the tower that is located next to it. From there we move to the ancient city of Martia (Marchena), a residential and agricultural city for the Romans and which thanks to the works of improvement in the infrastructures of water supply of the town, a site of Roman origin was found
From Marchena we continue to the streets of La Puebla de Cazalla where important legal documents were found: The Municipium Flavium Villonensis and its Lex. The first one was a set of political and administrative structures that allowed access to the places conquered by the Romans, while the Lex is a stone block with a Roman inscription that mentioned Villo and an indigenous population.
The next stop is El Saucejo, with mainly agricultural remains, until we reach the great Urso (Osuna), which played an important role in the Second Civil War between Pompey Magnus and Julius Caesar (49-45 BC). The quarries of ancient Urso, located in the so-called Coto de las Canteras, which is said to be the 'Petra' of Andalusia, are of outstanding importance. The next stop would be Gilena, a very prolific town with 36 Roman sites. The end of the route would be the towns of Ostippo (Estepa) and Ventippo (Casariche), the latter with its Roman quarry. All these towns have been deeply marked by centuries of history and by the traces left on them by the numerous peoples that have passed through them.
0 comments
New comment
The comments are moderated, so it takes a while to appear. If they contain offensive language they will not be published.