The Guadiana River is the great green lung of Mérida, dividing the city in two. Between its banks and the lush islands that form in the riverbed, a large number of birds can be easily observed, includ... (plus +)

The Guadiana River is the great green lung of Mérida, dividing the city in two. Between its banks and the lush islands that form in the riverbed, a large number of birds can be easily observed, including Cattle Egrets, Cormorants, Laughing Gulls, and, of course, White Storks. Near the largest of these islands, the largest green area in the city, this route runs. It is called 'La Isla', and it is a park almost two kilometers long that runs between monumental bridges from different periods of history: the iron railway bridge, a work by the engineer William Finch Festherstone, erected between 1881 and 1883; the spectacular Lusitania Bridge, a work by Santiago Calatrava, inaugurated in 1992; the unique Roman bridge, which we will explain later; finally, to the south, we can see the New Bridge, a work by Carlos Fernández Casado, one of the most prominent Spanish engineers of the last century. This is where our city was forged and the most bloody moments of local history took place. This area is also where several archaeological sites are crowded together without interruption and where a unique building stands: the Alcazaba. Finally, the new image of the city is also reflected in the waters of the Guadiana with new buildings designed by the most renowned national architecture studios. The route begins at the ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA OF MORERÍAS, a 14 m2 plot that, until the early 1990s, was occupied by the humble neighborhood of Morerías, and today is one of the largest urban archaeological sites on the peninsula. In Morerías, the most extensive stretch of Roman wall brought to light is preserved, showing us not only its original structure (with a preserved width of almost three meters and a possible height of eight meters) and the reinforcements that were added to it in the late stages of the Empire, but also gates, small gates, and patrol paths. But what Morerías offers us is a clear vision of the evolution of the urban planning of Mérida from the 1st century to the Visigothic period. We see how the arcaded roads, the houses, and the blocks in which they are encompassed gradually change. And, above all, the so-called 'House of the Marbles', which shows us all the luxury of a house at the end of the 3rd century, the period of greatest splendor of the city. Upon leaving the site, at the roundabout that gives entrance to the majestic LUSITANIA BRIDGE, you can contemplate a fountain with a life-size replica of Augustus dressed as a general of the legions, a faithful copy of the marble statue found in Prima Porta, and now preserved in the Vatican Museums. If we continue along Paseo de Roma, we reach the ROMAN BRIDGE, one of the longest in antiquity, whose construction gives meaning to the existence of this city and, due to its strategic value, is a crucial element for trade and for all the wars that have taken place in the western part of the peninsula. The bridge, a work from the time of the founding of the Colony, is entirely built of concrete lined with granite ashlars, and today is composed of sixty semicircular arches, is almost eight hundred meters long, and twelve meters high at the highest points. The sturdy pillars on which these arches rest have rounded cutwaters upstream in those sections that could be more affected by the current. In addition, the piers of these sections are pierced with small arches as spillways, in order to reduce the resistance to the current of such a robust structure as this bridge. We do not leave the bridge, as from here we have an excellent view of the Alcazaba, the Roman dike that we will see later, and the current Mérida. From here we can admire how present-day Mérida has ordered its facade to the river with a significant sample of our contemporary architecture. Thus, on the right bank, we can see the colossal administrative building of the new regional government offices that Juan Navarro Baldeweg built on the ruins of Morerías. On the left bank, next to the mouth of the bridge, is the School of Public Administration, designed by Javier Saínz de Oiza. To its left, a fountain with the representation of the god Ocean, a work by the Cordovan sculptor Aurelio Teno. Among the trees, we can see another sculptural group, this time a work by Rufino Mesa called 'The Seven Chairs'. They are seven granite blocks symbolizing the summa cavea of the Roman Theater as seven bookshelves. Further back, the gray mass of the JESÚS DELGADO VALHONDO PUBLIC LIBRARY stands out, designed by Luis Arranz. And, beyond the Lusitania Bridge, two gigantic blocks of concrete and glass house the PALACE OF CONGRESSES AND EXHIBITIONS. Architects Enrique Sobejano and Fuensanta Nieto designed this original building as a relief work, as the entire facade of this building is composed of hundreds of concrete slabs reproducing the plan of the archaeological complex of Mérida. Before entering the enclosure of the Arab Alcazaba, in the center of a small roundabout, we can see a replica of the Capitoline Wolf, a gift from the city of Rome to Mérida. The ALCAZABA is a great fortress that was erected in Muslim Mérida by the Umayyad emir Abderramán II in 835 AD. The architect Abd Allah was in charge of its design. To execute this Alcazaba, the oldest in the peninsula, he was inspired by Byzantine models. The purpose of this fortified enclosure was multiple: to serve as the headquarters of the Umayyad administrative dependencies and the residence of the local governor, but above all, it was the access filter to the city from the Roman bridge, the refuge of the Arab minority during the repeated local uprisings against Cordoban power, and the place where the emir's troops were stationed, either to quell the revolts of the Meridian Mozarabs or to carry out harassment raids in the Christian kingdoms of the North. Inside, the presence of a cistern stands out, a unique example of peninsular archaeology, executed with pieces of Roman and Visigothic decorative architecture. A mosque was located above it, of which its plan is preserved, later converted into a church. The third floor of this complex, where a signaling tower may have been located, is not preserved. Few cities in Hispania were as thoroughly urbanized as Augusta Emerita. One more proof of this is the existence of an extensive ROMAN DIKE on the right bank of the Guadiana. It is that sturdy wall with buttresses, with a base of rusticated ashlars and the rest of the elevation in masonry, which we see extending from the Alcazaba to the place where the canopies of some public parking lots stand out. Originally, the dike ran along the entire stretch of the city facing the river, that is, from the brick housing blocks that we see in the background to a few meters beyond the Lusitania Bridge. On a section of the dike, we can see the stretch of the Alcazaba wall facing the Guadiana. Leaving the riverbank and entering the interior, we come across the BULLRING, a work by the distinguished architect from Badajoz, Ventura Vaca, inaugurated in 1914. During the foundation work of the bullring, a set of Roman sculptures was found, some of them donated by an important priest in charge of the cult of the god Mithras. In a plot adjacent to the bullring, we find the so-called MITREO HOUSE, a dwelling built at the end of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century AD outside the city walls, without restrictions for its growth. Undoubtedly, its extension and the decoration of some of its rooms denote that its owners were relevant figures within Merida's society, educated in Hellenistic culture. In one of the rooms of the house, the Cosmos mosaic is preserved. It represents, with great color and realism, a motley group of human figures representing the different components of the known universe, starting from earthly and marine elements to celestial ones, but all revolving around a primordial figure, that of Eternity (Aeternitas). Before leaving this space, we will have been struck by a colossal bronze sculptural group that emerges to the south, behind the Mitreo House. It is a Pietà by the sculptor Juan de Ávalos, erected in memory of all the Meridians fallen in all wars. From the Mitreo House, through a long corridor flanked by cypresses, we reach an open space where the different types of funeral rites and the varied ways that the Meridians have had to remember their dead throughout history are shown, we are in the COLUMBARIUMS. In the background, in a small depression, two small buildings stand, originally without a roof. In these buildings, the cinerary urns of two families, the Voconios and the Julios, were deposited. Following a path, to the south of this complex, we come across remains of two semi-subterranean mausoleums with barrel vaulted roofs, built in concrete (opus caementicium). These were accessed through short ladders. Inside, we can see the arcosolia where the cinerary urns could have been deposited. This funerary complex is from the 1st century AD. We finish the route a few meters from the Columbariums, on one side of Avenida Ensanche, where the hydraulic conduit that, coming from the Cornalvo reservoir, supplied water to the southern area of the city runs. What is preserved are remains of the canal box (specus), embedded in the wall of the Roman wall, which, due to its layout, seems to head towards the place where the water distribution tower was located, which possibly is the one that now occupies the arena of the Bullring. Of the four hydraulic conduits that supplied water to the city, this is the only one of which we know its real name, 'AQUAAUGUSTA'.
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