Almendralejo to Merida stage

Population of over 2,000 inhabitants located in the penillanura of Badajoz, specifically in the region Tierra de Barros, and 15 kilometers from Mérida. Torremejía is divided by the N-630, which separates its oldest part with the most modern one. In Roman times it was also another way, the Roman road that linked the Bética with the Lusitania, which crossed these lands.

• Parish church of the Purísima Concepción:

  Single nave masonry and brick building with Latin cross plan. It was built in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries. As a chapel, he was part of the Palace of the Mexia. The church was saved during the War of Independence (the people were practically destroyed) because artillery guns were kept there. It was restored in 1990.

• Palacio de los Mexía:

  It is a 17th-century manor house, former home of Lords Mexia and today restored as a tourist hostel of the Vía de la Plata. The Azzano arch of the entrance is decorated with the shells of Santiago and in one of the buttresses the remains of three Roman sculptures are embedded. Of its primitive tower, annexed to the palace, the population took the name.

After the change of provincial distribution in Roman Hispania - of the provinces Citerior and Posterior, it was transferred to Tarraconense, Bética and Lusitania - and the victory against the last reduct of peninsular opposition, the legacy Publius Carisio, in the year 25 BC and on behalf of the emperor Octavio Augusto himself, founded Emerita Augusta. At first, they were only lands donated to the soldiers of the legions V Alaudae and X Gemina in gratitude for the merits shown in the campaign against Cantabros. However, this city on the banks of the Guadiana would become the capital of the Lusitania province and, even today, retains the largest Roman legacy of Spain. In 1993, the archaeological complex of the city was declared a World Heritage Site.

• Roman theatre:

  Inaugurated around 16 BC and donated by Marco Agripa, son of Emperor Augustus. Built to house 6,000 people, the theater was in use until the second half of the fourth century. It was buried for centuries, only the upper part of the graderío or cavea was seen, and it was necessary to wait until 1910 for excavations to begin. All summers, since 1933, is the main stage of the Classical Theatre Festival of Merida.

• Roman amphitheatre:

  Opened on 8 B.C. It celebrated the struggles between gladiators and between men and animals. At the graderío, divided into the sections ima, media and summa cavea, he entered one of the sixteen doors. The spectacle was developed in the elliptical perimeter covered with sand and, under it, there was a grave that probably served to store the cages of the jaws and staging material.

• Roman circus:

  It dates back to the early 1st century AD and was the largest of the public show buildings built by the Romans in Merida. The arena or area where it competed occupies an extension of 30,000 square meters. In the center of it, dividing it into two parts, was the spina. This was a line composed of sculptures and obelisks that today are no more than the remains of foundations.

• Amphitheatre House:

  Enclosure that includes a section of the wall, of the conduction of the aqueduct of San Lázaro, a tower of decantation thereof and the remains of two dwellings and a mausoleum. The houses, at the end of the first century AD, retain remains of their courtyards, corridors and rooms.

• Roman Bridge of Guadiana:

  It was built under the mandates of Augustus and Trajano. It is almost 800 meters long, 60 arches, and the factory is masonry and granite sillares.

• Aqueduct of the Miracles:

  Located next to the Roman bridge over the Albarregas stream, natural exit from the Via de la Plata to the north. It conserves more than 35 granite and brick pillars that reach a height of 25 meters. It brought water to the city from the Proserpine Reservoir.

• Trajan's Arch:

  Roman arc formed by granite candles and built by the use of a curved wood frame. The arch was lined with marble plates and decorated with cornices, reliefs and sculptures. It is located on the current street Holguín, old Cardo Maximus, one of the two main streets of the city built in north-south direction. Interestingly, it wasn't built in Trajan's times before, during the early years of our age and under the emperor Tiberio.

• Alcazaba arabic:

  On one of the banks of the Guadian River, crossed the Roman bridge, it was built in 835 using Roman and Visigoth remains. A Roman wall protects the fortification of the river. At the perimeter of the alcazaba, more than half a kilometer, abundant architectural samples of the different cultural periods of the city are preserved.

• Basilica of Santa Eulalia:

  Located at the northern end of the city. At the entrance there is a chapel and an interesting porch in which parts of an old Roman temple dedicated to Mars were incorporated. The chapel was built in memory of the martyr Santa Eulalia, which was burned in a furnace in the days of Diocletian (centuries III and IV AD). The church was founded in the fourth century and expanded two centuries later. With the reconquest, in the thirteenth century, it was transformed. It is Romanesque with Roman and Visigodic elements that were used for its construction.