“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.
Roman Baetic
The second route we are going to follow is known as the Roman-Baetic route. We being in the ancient Colonia Iulia Romula Hispalis, Seville, a city with a wide variety of Roman vestiges. Mythology speaks of Hercules as the founder of the city, inspiring emperor Julius Caesar to inaugurate it in 45 BC, although the truth is Seville was conquered by the Roman army from the Carthaginians during the Punic Wars. By 49 BC, the Roman Hispalis had a wall, a forum and constructions that have survived over time to the present day.
From here, this Roman road passes through villages with important Roman remains such as La Rinconada which, thanks to the archaeological remains found, we know its origin dates back to the middle of the 8th century BC. The remains found there include Tartessian burnished ceramics, Phoenician red glazes, Iberian strip-painted ceramics, as well as Greek and Roman ceramics; Carmona with its Puerta de Sevilla, the amphitheatre and the necropolis; Alcalá del Río with its wall as the most monumental testimony that has come down to us, built around the 1st century AD; Alcalá del Río with its wall as the most monumental testimony that has come down to us, built around the 1st century AD; the town of Tocina, where coins and amphorae have also been discovered, as well as the remains of Roman villas and service areas, similar to warehouses, as the one found in the Fuente de Mocho; Villanueva del Río y Minas, a town in which lies the ancient Roman mining town, whose magnificent remains tell us of a life full of splendour and wealth: Mulva, also known as Munigua, is one of the most beautiful archaeological complexes in Spain, which was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest; the town of Tocina; Fuentes de Andalucía, in whose hills of San Pedro and Obúlcula you can clearly see the Roman presence and from where remains of Campanian pottery and a lead coffin have been extracted, among others; La Luisiana with its baths, a building of both artistic and archaeological interest and which is believed to be related to a villa located 300 metres from the baths; and San Nicolás del Puerto, where there are two Roman vestiges: the bridge over the Galindón river and a column with a capital embedded in a corner of the parish church. Finally, we will go to the legendary Astigi (Ecija), a city with a lot of movement during the Roman Empire and with great monumental buildings. We finish the tour in the town of Peñaflor, among whose main Roman remains the urban structure of the oppidum of Celti stands out, which emerged in recent excavations in the area of La Viña and which today is part of the Casas Cuevas Archaeological Site, which belongs to the eastern necropolis of Celti.
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