Gardens of the Roman Empire

Basilica-House of the Theater

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Lusitania Pleiades: 1101

Province Description

Despite the prior existence of urban centers like Metellinum, the capital of Lusitania was a new foundation, the Colonia Augusta Emerita (Mérida), which would also serve as the capital of one of the smaller juridical units (conventus) and would be the scene of flourishing activity in the succeeding centuries, its prosperity lasting until the late Roman and Visigothic era. Subsequently, a series of well-known Roman cities were built in what was then Lusitania but is now partly in Portugal and partly in Spain. As well as the capital, there were Conimbriga, Salmantica, Evora, Olisipo (now Lisbon), Pax Iulia (now Beja), and Metallium Viscascense (Aljustrel), this last recognized as the capital of an important mining area. The series of wealthy villae, such as that of La Cocosa, Milreu or San Cucufate are particularly noteworthy. Another of the important elements of the Roman era is the series of still visible ways of communication, of which the Vía de la Plata has most remaining, especially in the sections of Baños de Montemayor in Cáceres or the bridges that cross the rivers, such as that of San Pedro de Alcántara, or of Mérida.

Location

Location Description

Geopolitical and economic motives together facilitated the prosperity of this great center of the Iberian peninsula. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, son-in-law of the emperor, was a benefactor of Augusta Emerita. The city was situated on the right bank of the Anas River (Rio Guardiana), today the Guadiana River. The site had the advantage of an easily crossed ford at the mouth of the Barraeca River (Rio Albarregas), and was an ideal site for surveillance and defense. The area immediately surrounding Augusta Emerita had rich granite quarries, sands from the riverbed, and other types of rock for the new constructions. The city's topography determined the new rectilinear urban layout. The variations in ground level, due to small hills in the land, probably necessitated terracing, which is still discernible in today's modern network of streets. The bridge over the Guadiana, the longest in the peninsula with a length of almost 800 meters, provided the N-S axis to which the street grid was aligned. The new colony also had an ambitious system of urban drainage. The sewers and water lines form a complete underground complex of canals. The works of hydraulic engineering, whose dates of construction and later stages of development are debated, support the notion that Augusta Emerita was a city with a grand, forward-looking vision.

At the intersection of the decumanus and cardo were two fora, one for the city's functions and one for the Province's functions. Some of the monumental buildings have been excavated. The Mérida fora, whose layouts resemble those in the other western imperial provinces, have iconographic programs that resemble those of Rome; the forum of Augusta Emerita is a particularly faithful reflection of the Forum Augustum. This imitative trend appears also in the two other provincial capitals of Hispania, Tarraco and Corduba and underscores the power which Augustan images and architecture had in the political, ideological fabric of the provinces.

The area of Augusta Emerita best known today, because of extensive excavations, is around the so-called Temple of Diana. The temple is actually dedicated to the imperial cult. The structures devoted to public performance - theater, amphitheater, and circus - surrounded the urban center. The theater was begun in 16-15 BC and the amphitheater in 8 BC, during the first decades of colonial presence. Augusta Emerita's necropolis ran around the city's urban perimeter and expanded as the city proper grew.

Because most of evidence from Merida was unearthed in old excavations, the context of many ancient objects is unknown. There is also a lack of analytical data on many of the areas which must originally have been gardened. The classification of the gardens of the Colonia Augusta Emerita is still under analysis. The study by Moreno is a basic survey article and should be understood to be part of all the bibliographies for Merida.

Bibliography

I. C. Moreno, "Los jardines de Mérida," Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas Nº. 2, 1996 , pp. 303-328. (worldcat)

Garden

Basilica-House of the Theater

Keywords

Garden Description

This late-imperial domus was discovered by J. Ramón Mélida while excavating the backstage of the Theater. The existence of two rooms with apses at the east end led to the interpretation of the building as an early Christian basilica. Few of the structures in this residence of the 2nd and 4th centuries are visible today. These include a colonnaded courtyard with columns on small white marble bases, three each on the north and south sides and two each on the east and west sides, not counting those on the corners. In the northeast corner of the courtyard was a shallow pool resembling an impluvium. It was shifted off-center in the garden to be almost on the axis of the larger of the two apses. A rill, coated in opus signinum, ran along its north, south and west sides. In the center was a cistern capped by a wellhead made of marble slabs and lined with several layers of opus signinum.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of the Basilica - House of the Theater.

Credit: Adapted from Cassilla Moreno, p.315.

Dates

2nd and 4th centuries CE

Bibliography

R. Durán Cabello, 'La técnica constructiva de la llamada 'Casa Basílica' de Mérida', in La casa urbana hispanorromana : ponencias y comunicaciones., 1991, pp. 359-69. (worldcat)

Places

House of Alcazaba

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Lusitania

Lusitania Pleiades: 1101

Province Description

Location

Location Description

Bibliography

I. C. Moreno, "Los jardines de Mérida," Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas Nº. 2, 1996 , pp. 303-328. (worldcat)

Garden

House of Alcazaba

Keywords

Garden Description

Within the enclosure of the Islamic Alcazaba, west of the city, are the remains of this great late-Imperial domus, excavated in the 1970's by D. José Álvarez Sáenz de Buruaga. It remains unpublished. The principal element of its peristyle is a deep rectangular pool with a semicircular extension from the middle of one long side. The room opposite this pool, the largest of the house, was paved in opus sectile; several other rooms surrounding the peristyle had mosaic floors. The presence of a peristyle and pool strongly suggests a garden.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of the House of Alcazaba.

Credit: Adapted from Palma Garcia, p. 350.

Dates

4th century CE

Excavation Dates

1970's

Bibliography

L. J. Hernández Ramírez, La pintura mural romana de Mérida. (Inserta en la estructura urbana y doméstica de la ciudad, UNED (unpublished doctoral dissertation), 1993, pp. 634-702, lam. 10
E. García Sandoval, "Excavaciones arqueológicas en la zona de Mérida: La Casa del Anfiteatro," in C.A.N., 8(1964): 469-477 (worldcat)
F. Palma Garcia, "Las casas romanos intramuros en Mérida" Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicos. 1997, p. 347-65 (worldcat)

Places

House of the Amphitheater

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Lusitania

Lusitania Pleiades: 1101

Province Description

Location

Location Description

Bibliography

I. C. Moreno, "Los jardines de Mérida," Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas Nº. 2, 1996 , pp. 303-328. (worldcat)

Garden

House of the Amphitheater

Keywords

Garden Description

Next to the Amphitheater, on the east side of Augusta Emerita, are the remains of two extramural residences. The archaeological excavations of these domestic structures were begun in 1947 by José de Calasanz Serra Ráfols, who was succeeded by M. Pous, Álvarez Sáenz de Buruaga, and E. García Sandoval. Although chronologically distinct, the two houses are known together as the "House of the Amphitheater" due to their proximity to that monument.

The first of these houses is called the "House of the Water Tower" after a nearby water tower (Number 4 in LUS 4.1.1) and dates to the second century A.D. Today, only the remains of a few chambers and a colonnaded courtyard (Fig. 3) with a small channel running around the perimeter of its pavement survive.

The second house, which is better preserved, is more correctly dubbed the "House of the Amphitheater" (Figs. 4 and 5). It dates to the third century A.D. and remained in use until the fifth century A.D. The "House of the Amphitheater" was organized around a colonnaded courtyard of ample dimensions, whose interior served as a garden with individual rooms opening onto it. Roughly trapezoidal, it was surrounded on all sides by colonnades with granite columns originally sheathed with red stucco. The longer east and west sides had six columns, while the shorter north and south sides had five. A low rubble wall contained the lower portions of the shafts on the north, south, and east sides, leaving the west side open for easy access to the garden. At the foot of the colonnade and running along the garden edge (except on the west) was a canal of some depth with a semicircular curve on its eastern edge in front of an important chamber. Next to the curve and within the garden, a well was found.

The house, of sizeable proportions, boasted important painted and mosaic decoration. Of the three chambers situated along the southeast gallery, the center chamber had opus signinum pavement and has been interpreted as a triclinium, from which one could enjoy magnificent views of the garden. The pavement of the contiguous chamber to the northeast has a beautiful mosaic with representations of Venus and Cupid surrounded with floral designsand "The Mosaic of the Grape Harvest" (Mosaico de la Vendimia). They were repaired in antiquity.

An equally important second nucleus of this house consisted of a complex of rooms at its east end. This area had handsome mosaic pavements and communicated with the aforementioned peristyle through an L-shaped passageway. Its largest chamber, which had the character of a show room, if not a triclinium, is known as the "Hall of the Fish Mosaic" (Habitación del Mosaico de los Peces) and is dated to the 3rd century AD. Although this second group of rooms was probably organized around courtyards or gardens, none have been documented because this part of the residence remains unexcavated. The peristyle of the House of the Amphitheater, as well as the plan of the entire residence, has close parallels in the eastern Mediterranean which have been thoroughly studied by A. Balil.

Plans

Fig. 1: Relation of House of the Amphitheater (area 5 on the right) and House of the Water Tower (area 4 on the left. Also shown are: (1) a section of the city wall, (2) aqueduct of St. Lazarus, (3) the water tower, and (6) a mausoleum from the second half of the 3rd century.

Credit: Adapted from the tourist guide issued by the Mérida Consorzio.

Fig. 2: Plan of the House of the Amphitheater.

Credit: Adapted from Casillas Moreno, where it was taken from De Alvarado Barrena.

Images

Fig. 3: Photo looking northeast over the peristyle garden of the House of the Amphitheater.

Dates

2nd century CE and 3rd CE

Excavation Dates

from 1947

Bibliography

A. Balil Illana, A. 1976: "Sobre la arquitectura doméstica en Augusta Emerita", Augusta Emerita Actas del Bimilenario de Mérida, Mérida, 75-91. (worldcat)
E. García Sandoval, Excavaciones arqueológicas en la zona de Mérida: La Casa del Anfiteatro," in C.A.N., 8 (i964): 469-477 (worldcat)
E. García Sandoval, Informe sobre las casa romanas de Mérida y excavaciones en la «Casa del Anfiteatro»," in Excavaciones Arqueológicas en España nº. 49, Madrid, 1964. (worldcat)

Places

House of the Hill Garden

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Lusitania

Lusitania Pleiades: 1101

Province Description

Location

Location Description

Bibliography

I. C. Moreno, "Los jardines de Mérida," Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas Nº. 2, 1996 , pp. 303-328. (worldcat)

Garden

House of the Hill Garden

Keywords

Garden Description

Very little is known about the characteristics of this intramurally situated domus, whose remains were discovered in 1976 during explorations in the grounds of the 'Hill Garden.' In the emergency excavations carried out by José Álvarez Sáenz de Buruaga, the remains of two peristyles were discovered with mural paintings and mosaic pavements dated to the end of the second or early third century A.D. The structures of this house, only partially excavated, have been buried again for the sake of preservation and are no longer visible.

Dates

The end of the 2nd or early 3rd century AD

Bibliography

A. Blanco Freijeiro, Corpus de mosaicos romanos de España, 1(1978): 48-49. (worldcat)

Places

House of the Mithraeum

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Lusitania

Lusitania Pleiades: 1101

Province Description

Location

Location Description

Bibliography

I. C. Moreno, "Los jardines de Mérida," Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas Nº. 2, 1996 , pp. 303-328. (worldcat)

Garden

House of the Mithraeum

Keywords

Garden Description

The great house built adjacent to the San Albin Hill, in the extreme southwest of the city, offers a handsome example of a suburban domus, whose refined decoration indicates an owner with intellectual and philosophical interests. The house derives its name from its proximity to the remains of a possible Mithraeum lying beneath the present-day bullring. The chronology given for this domus extends from the end of the first to the fourth century AD.

The peristyle surrounded a garden with a pool, and was situated on axis with the atrium but further south and at a lower level. Running between the granite columns of the portico is a brick wall (one meter in height) from which extended perpendicular salients on the side facing the pool. These were decorated with a program consisting of floral motives and rhomboidal openwork with bluish trefoils. Only part of this decorative program survives. From the southwest corner of the rectangular pool a brick water channel ran along the south and east sides of the area surrounding the pool to the north-east corner of the courtyard. The hydraulic apparatus was completed by a cistern with a granite rim on the west side of the peristyle. The relationship of these elements to the rest of the complex is unknown.

The lower part of the walls of the peristyle were painted with a dado of small rectangular panels with white and yellow rhomboids and floral decoration separated by white lines. Above this dado, green vertical bands separated large bluish panels decorated with vegetal designs and geometric motives suggesting candelabras. There were chambers, whose functions are unknown, on either side of the passageway that extended between this peristyle and the atrium to the north; the chamber on the west side, known as the 'Painted Hall' ('Habitación de las Pinturas'), presents a pictorial program of candelabras and painted dados representing birds and plants, dated to the second century AD.

West-southwest of the peristyle, a group of interesting chambers were arrayed around a delightful garden of ample proportions. The latter consisted of a rectangular space surrounded by stucco-clad granite columns on all four sides as well as a channel running around the perimeter just in front of the columns, except on the west side where the channel curves inward to form a semi-circle. The interior of this space was clearly gardened, although the excavators found no clue as to its original appearance. On the extreme south side, attached to one of the columns, are the partial remains of a peculiar brick structure which had a hole in its lower part for the passage of water. Its function is unclear. The pictorial decoration of this viridarium resembles that of the peristyle's dado.

The passage formed by the north colonnade gave access to three chambers, the middle one a triclinium, with mosaic pavements and wall dados painted with birds and vegetal themes. On the west side, facing the garden's exedra, was a chamber with Bacchic murals (now in the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano) and below its floor, a great barrel-vaulted cistern. On the south side, several rooms formed what may have been a cubiculum (bedroom) with mosaics whose themes included Eros with a dove. Two subterranean rooms in the southeast corner of this same group probably provided cool refuge from the summer heat.

Plans

Fig. 1: House of the Mithraeum.

Credit: Adapted from Casilla Moreno.

Images

Fig. 2: Central peristyle.

Fig. 3: Southwest peristyle.

Dates

The end of the 1st to the 4th century AD

Bibliography

LL. Abad Casal, "Pintura romana en Mérida,' in Augusta Emerita, Madrid, 1976, pp. 163-82 (worldcat)

Places

Houses Under the Museum

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Lusitania

Lusitania Pleiades: 1101

Province Description

Location

Location Description

Bibliography

I. C. Moreno, "Los jardines de Mérida," Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas Nº. 2, 1996 , pp. 303-328. (worldcat)

Garden

Houses Under the Museum

Keywords

Garden Description

Prior to building the present Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, excavations were undertaken at the site in 1978 and 1979. Two suburban residences were explored and preserved in the crypt of the museum. These contained at least three courtyards. One was a colonnaded courtyard of 'marble,' and this small rectangular courtyard (at the rear of the crypt) consisted of a low wall of mortared rubble with simple marble columns of the Tuscan order. It was surrounded by incompletely excavated chambers, one of which had a program of wall paintings and stuccos which dated the complex to the period first through the fourth century A.D.

Another had a peristyle with an exedra. This was a small rectangular peristyle (near the stairs leading down to the crypt) with stucco-clad brick columns except in the corners where square pilasters were substituted. In the porticoes formed by these, the walls were painted. Wrapping around the courtyard proper were segments of a brick canal revetted with painted stucco. On its interiors, the canal was revetted with opus signinum and its floor had quarter-circle reinforcement. On the courtyard's east side, off center, a semi-circular exedra led to what was probably the most impressive chamber in the house. The remains of another colonnaded court (in the southeast corner of the crypt) consisted of two rubblework walls forming a corner and supporting marble columns of the Tuscan order; the corridor formed by this colonnade was paved with opus signinum.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of the houses under the Museum.

Dates

The 4th century A.D

Excavation Dates

1978 and 1979

Bibliography

J. Barrera Antón (De), "El trabajo estucado en «Augusta Emerita»: los grandes frisos de la casa romana del solar del Museo", in Extremadura Arqueológica, (Homenaje a la Dra Dª Milagro Gil Mascarell Boscá), 5(1995): 221-223. (worldcat)
J. Hernández Ramírez, La pintura mural romana de Mérida. (Inserta en la estructura urbana y doméstica de la ciudad), UNED (unpublished doctoral disertation), 1993, pp. 1380-1506.

Places

Peristyle of the Theater

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Lusitania

Lusitania Pleiades: 1101

Province Description

Location

Location Description

Bibliography

I. C. Moreno, "Los jardines de Mérida," Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas Nº. 2, 1996 , pp. 303-328. (worldcat)

Garden

Peristyle of the Theater

Keywords

Garden Description

The space behind the theater screen comprises one of the best preserved gardens of Augusta Emerita. It consisted of a rectangular enclosure surrounded on the north, east, and west sides by ambulatories formed by double colonnades of granite with Corinthian capitals and red-stuccoed bases. The wall within these walkways had niches with paintings, of which few traces remain. In addition to entering through the screen, access was also possible via a small flight of granite steps in the southeast corner from the street, which separated this monument from the Amphitheater.

A water channel bordered the exterior of the colonnade, emptying into two small square depressions in the northeast and northwest corners which connected to the drains traversing the north side of the peristyle. Water, indispensable for irrigation and the fountains, was in ample supply, probably owing to the theate's proximity to the San Lázaro water canal. Parallel to the portico of the rear of the proscenium (stage), in the eastern part, ran a wall which expanded in the form of an exedra, forming a semicircular space for a statue. But the most interesting element of the peristyle, located at the back of it and on axis with the valva regia, was an aula sacar locate on plan, dedicated to the imperial cult. In front of this was a small marble fountain decorated with vegetal motifs. The aula sacra consisted of a small rectangular chamber with marble revetted walls and niches for statues. Inside, four toga-clad statues, a veiled head of Augustus, and a head of Tiberius were found.

While the theater belongs to multiple phases of construction, the aula sacra belongs to a Tiberian phase. The peristyle's important program of sculptures and paintings, together with the green spaces, must have given the edifice a magnificent appearance. Unfortunately, many of its decorative elements, wall paintings, bronzes, and marble paving slabs do not survive, and there are few remaining works of statuary, although these are marble and well made.

Water, indispensable for irrigation and the fountains, was in ample supply, probably owing to the theate's proximity to the San Lázaro water canal. The present appearance of the peristyle is the result of restorations carried out in 1964 by J. Menéndez-Pidal in which the south wing of the peristyle was resurrected and covered with a pergola and the fountain restored to working order.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of the theater and peristyle.

Images

Fig. 2: Photo of the theater peristyle garden.

Fig. 3: Photo of the theater peristyle garden.

Fig. 4: Photo of the theater peristyle garden.

Fig. 5: Photo of the theater peristyle garden from the north side.

Dates

16-15 BC

Excavation Dates

1964

Bibliography

A. Floriano, "Excavaciones en Mérida (Campañas de 1934 y 1936)", in Archivo Español de Arqueología, 55 (1944): 151-187 (worldcat)
J.R. Mélida, "El teatro romano de Mérida," R.A.B.M., 32, (1915): 1-38 (worldcat)
P. Mateos Cruz and J. Marquez Pérez, 'Neuvas structuras urbanas relacionadas con el Teatro Romano de Mérida: El pórtico de acceso,' Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas, 1997, pp.301-20 (worldcat)
W. Trillmich, Die Prásenz des Kaiserhauses im Theater der Colonia Augusta Emerita , (unpublished disertation), University of München (1995)

Places

Temple of Diana

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Lusitania

Lusitania Pleiades: 1101

Province Description

Location

Location Description

Bibliography

I. C. Moreno, "Los jardines de Mérida," Mérida, excavaciones arqueológicas Nº. 2, 1996 , pp. 303-328. (worldcat)

Garden

Temple of Diana

Keywords

Garden Description

The Temple of Diana is the only surviving religious building from the Augusta Emerita Forum. Despite its name, it was actually dedicated to the imperial cult and dates to the end of the Augustan period. Excavations conducted in 1972 by J. Mª. Álvarez Martínez produced some evidence for a garden in conjunction with the temple. The space surrounding the temple was interpreted as a garden area, enclosed by a portico, which contained two rectangular pools on the east and west sides of the temple. Of the sculptural pieces found outside the temple, some have been situated in the western pool: a bronze leg (forming part of an idealized figure and probably fixed on the base of the pool) and two marble fragments of tragic masks which could have served as fountain spouts.

Plans

Fig. 1: Temple of Diana.

Credit: Adapted from Casillas Morena, p. 309.

Dates

The end of the Augustan period

Excavation Dates

1972

Bibliography

J. Mª. Álvarez Martinez, J. L. de la Barrera Antón and A. Velázquez Jiménez, Mérida (Turismo Everest), León, 1995, p. 54. (worldcat)