Mérida

Mérida 10th and 11th of March (Saturday and Sunday)

It is kind of hard to explain how amazing this trip actually was so I am going to just start writing and hopefully the pictures and my words help bring this trip alive for you too!

Well Mérida is one of those places that people say yeah you should go there but never really say why and when you ask they just say there are ruins there, the reason is a lot of people don´t seem to find time in their busy schedules, or guide books don´t recommend going etc. If I would have gone to Mérida sooner I would have taken my family there in a heartbeat. Anyone going to spain try to make a trip to Mérida- a well kept secret place filled, I mean FILLED with roman and Moor ruins. And they put everything on display wonderfully and the price is just about perfect. Also those of you who know Gladiator this is the town that he always tells people he is from- we believe that his family lived outside the town in the campo.

We made a quick stop on the way down in a small pueblo for churros that morning (this is like stopping in Pinedale for ice cream- every spaniard goes to the same place and gets churros when they are driving through). So we kept up the tradition and got what I like to describe a bouquet of churros for the road. (they cut the churros and wrap them up like they would flowers- forgot to take a pic of this but I will get one later).

Anyways we got to Mérida and after buying the arqueological pass (5 euros for a student 9 for everyone else) we started with the biggest ruin the Ampifeatro and teatro. Today they still hold plays at the teatro in the summer- something that would be really fun. The pictures explain this themselves.
I should explain the difference between the ampiteatro and amfiteatro is that the amfiteatro is the place gladiator would have fought eachother and ferocious animals. also sometimes they brought in animals just to prey on other animals- any way you look at it there was a lot of death.

This picture is perfect to show you that there used to be 3 levels for people to sit now only the first level is really intact and the big bolders on top are some of the remains from the second level (yeah this structure was a lot bigger!) Anyways the big cross shaped hole is also called the fossa and this would have been covered. The gladiator would have fought on the platform over this hole and animals could be caged in this area and released at times that would surely surprise the gladiator and the audience- what a thrill! This is one of the walkways into the structure, and it reminds me of an events center today and really it is not that much different. This area is the VIP section in a manner of speaking. The aristocracy- meaning the governor and officials sat. These seats allowed the occupants to really feel the blood and soul of the fight.

This is where the Romans would have been to watch plays. Interesting stuff in these plays actors wore certain colors to depict their status a man in a white rob was old, a man in a certain color socks was rich another poor, and this was the same with the women depicting if they were rich and also most importantly if they were prostitutes (this was signified by a short tunic). Also they still have plays here in the summer. that is why the benches look so nice. there is a plastic cover over every seat that gives the appearance that it is rock and protects the almost nonexistant real rock underneath. This is a great shot of the whole structure. The ruin in the far left is the ampifeatro. The ruin on the right is the ampiteatro and the columns you see in the bottom show remains of the rectangular structure that was located behind the stage of the ampiteatro. This was the place the rich would have came for baths (in saunas called temas) and gossip.

We then went across the street to check out the ruins of an old mansion they label as the ¨Casa del Anfiteatro¨. Now some believe it was two mansions but either way it was property of the rich and in the back there was this private tomb with 7 coffins carved out of the rock. Next was lunch where we had Menú del día. My first dish was Migas. This is what they serve in los campos usually (in the pueblos because it is easy) and it just peppers fried up, pieces of bacon, and a ton of bread broken into pieces and fried after the bacon and peppers giving it a great flavor and a really good dish. My second dish was cerdo (it is like steak but from a pig.. I can´t call it ham because it is really different) with french fries (patatas fritas). Dessert was the house special crema. It was pudding with whipped cream and really good!

CHECK THIS! We continued our exploration of Merida with a trip to a necropolis (área funenaria de los Columbarios) and nearby a huge mansion called Casa del Mitreo, that is really well preserved. Interesting fact is that the necropolis is usually found on the other side of the main road of a huge mansion in roman and tartessos ruins. Back to the mansion it was really well protected with a huge roof that is also provides shades to tourist who can walk around the whole structure on suspended walkways without destroying anything- a neat idea.
This pic is neat because it has the water storage tank and over the top would have been a cover and this is where the resients are thought to have laid in the lounge chairs and ate a ton of food, then threw up, and continued eating.

This is just to show you how big this house really was.

The museum which was an old church and that is the reason it has a crypt (cripta) underneath it! It also has an old road that as Pedro puts it ¨is roman because it is built correctly¨ I gave him a hard time about ridiculing the moors for their building techniques this was one.
We spent a long time exploring the museum and its statues. Neat thing about the museum it is free on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings. Below the museum there used to be a tunnel to the ampitheatre and the theatre but it stopped right in front of the two so you couldn´t sneak into them without paying just get from the church to these places faster- making me think it was mainly for the rich. Oh and it also had the old walls that ran from the aqueduct bring running water to this facility. It also continued to the ampitheatre and theatre.

The museum had a lot of statues, and relics. One was the face of Cesar Agustas but I didn´t realize that it was him until Pedro jumped when he saw it and began telling me how much he hated this man. Now this surprised me and this past week I have researching on this information and he is right (that is what I get for doubting Pedro- his words not mine) there was a huge war called the Astur-Cantabrium wars in 29-19 B.C.

THE NEXT DAY- SUNDAY
The next day we hit the alcazaba and the alcazar first. These two structures were built right next to the river (as normal as the moors continually had running water) and was for defense and homes for military and/civilians (they aren´t sure). Anyway it has a a moralla (which is a huge stone wall that surrounds the city and has a walkway for guards to keep watch) and within the moralla there was a structure that went down to a water storage container- and on the roof of this a great view of all sides of the alcazaba. There was ruins of the houses inside as well and this is where the architectural techniques of moors really come out. The moors used rocks of all different shapes and sizes and cement to make their walls, while the romans made walls with big rocks cut in cubes and these needed less cement. What was interesting was the moors had taken some stones from the roman ruins and used them in making the muralla and some of the houses (this was obvious with the shapes of the rocks, and some of the capillas and columns were displayed in the structures). What I liked also was we had a great view of the river and a roman bridge from the alcazaba and the bridge was still used today and is exactly the same as it would have been during the roman times- why you may ask? Well because people don´t take the rocks of a bridge- they use the bridge continually and who would destroy something that is that important. Also I think there is more sentimental value with a theatre then there is with a bridge.

Next stop was to see some more ruins that probably would have been the townspeople called the área arqueológica de Morería. This was neat because it showed one block (manzana) of the roman city plan. Perfectly square seperated from the other houses with roads on all sides parallel to the other and perpendicular. It was well set up with nice roads. Other neat thing- there would be one structure with houses set up in squares with a patio in the middle for all the residents- the same as is stilled used today in spain. This structure has gone through changes because it was later inhabitated by the moors and so the roads were changed from perfectly straight to varying angles to help with more space in the houses, and shade. This one really shows the patio and the rooms surround this inner patio. This is still done in Spain today.

We then made a trip to see the convent with visigoth relics (not a big collection- but free and no one else was there) then to the Arco de Trajano and then to view the temple of Diana, and nearby the forum. The forum was where the council met and many went there to just hang out. Then we sat in the grass under a portion of the roman aqueduct called Milagros-which means miracles in english, and ate lunch under a part of the roman aqueduct,. Then we made our stop to the roman circo (that is always cool). For those that don´t know what the Circo is, well it is where the romans would have had chariot races and this one in particular was well used and attended, it was better then the one in Rome.

Then we went to Basilica de Santa Eulalia and we had 5 minutes to see the cripta (that was really neat!) we even found a humerus stuck in the cement below one of the huge pillars. The church is still used today above the crypt and they have structured the building nicely so visitors can see the sarcophaguses without really destroying anything. I wish we´d had more time for this place because it was really neat!

The trip wasn´t over yet- we then drove 30 minutes to a town near Madrid called Trujillo that was still important in the middle ages. The central square had a statue of Pizarro, a big cathedral, and a fountain in the middle. It was surrounded by the arches (typical in northern spain to help with snow) and used to be used as the bull ring. We walked up the hill to the old part of town where we were surrounded by houses, walls, churches, and streets built of stone. This is hard to describe how neat it was. We made our way up to the castle that was HUGE. We explored around it then made our way back down to eat dinner at a hotel and then return to Sevilla.

That was a hard trip to return from because we didn´t get back into Sevilla until 4am and poor Pedro had to drive the whole way. He had to stop a couple times to get some sleep on the way. I was tired the next day but it was worth it!