← Back to the map19th-century photograph of the Roman Theatre of Merida, Spain
Juan Laurent, 1867 (historic photograph) · Wikimedia Commons

Merida

Lusitania · Roman province·Spain·Founded 25 BCE by Augustus

Emerita Augusta, capital of Lusitania, founded for veterans of the Cantabrian wars. Its theatre, amphitheatre, and aqueducts are among Spain's best preserved.

A living Spanish city of around 60,000, capital of Extremadura; its extensive Roman ruins, including the theatre, amphitheatre, and aqueduct, are woven through the modern town.

Excavation history

1910-1915
Jose Ramon Melida with Maximiliano Macias — The first systematic excavations at Augusta Emerita focused on the Roman theatre, uncovering the cavea and orchestra.
2023
Consortium of the Monumental City of Merida, with University of Granada students — A large, exceptionally well-preserved private bath complex was found inside the House of the Amphitheater, complete with marble plaques, wall paintings, and intact iron window bars.

Notable finds

Ceres of the Theatre
Excavator Jose Ramon Melida pulled this veiled, crowned goddess from the foot of the theatre's stage in 1911, one of a matched set of marble deities that once lined the building's monumental facade.
National Museum of Roman Art, Merida
Statue of Serapis ("Pluto")
Carved in marble at over two meters tall and crowned with the god's basket-shaped modius headdress, this figure stood alongside Ceres on the theatre stage before 20th-century scholars corrected its old identification as Pluto.
National Museum of Roman Art, Merida
Mosaic of the Poet and the Muses
Two mosaic-layers, Seleucus and Anthus, signed their own names into this 2nd-century floor, a rare survival — most Roman craftsmen who paved houses with the Muses and the Seasons left no record of who they were.
National Museum of Roman Art, Merida
Cosmological Mosaic
Uncovered on 25 October 1966 still in the floor of a wealthy Emeritan house, this mosaic packs the Roman universe into one room — Aion, master of eternity, presiding over the winds, the rivers and the elements.
Casa del Mitreo, Merida
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