Last Friday we took a day trip to Merida. It is about one hour from Caceres by bus, in another region of the state of Extremadura. Merida was a very important city in the Roman Empire when it stretched across Spain in 200 AD. It was founded in 25 BC and used to be called Emeritus Augusta-Emeritus which means discharged soldiers (since that's who lived there) and Augusta for the emperor at the time. Now it is a city of about 60,000 people and most of the people who work in Merida work for the government and live in the surrounding cities, but drive to Merida to work each day. During our visit, we saw lots of the remains of the Roman Empire. Each Roman city has 3 main areas: a theater (for plays), an ampitheater (for bullfights, etc), and a circulo (for charriot races). Here are some pictures of what we saw:
The ampitheater-the pit is where they had the bullfights, etc.
This is where they kept the lions before they came out to fight.
Templo de Diana. It used to be the town square.
El Puente Romano-this bridge was built by the Romans to help people get across the river. Now it is a footbridge, but at one time they let cars drive on it.
These orange trees were in the plaza (central part) of the city. They were beautiful but it is illegal to pick the oranges since the trees are for decoration...good thing we didn't get caught ;)
Tombs for the wealthy people at the time. They were really short!
The circulo where they had charriot races.
Notice that the statues do not have heads...that is because when the emperor or other important officials died or went out of office they did not want to have to make a whole new staute, so they just replaced the heads and arms.
In front of the theater where plays were performed.
This is a garden behind the theater where people could walk around if they got tired from sitting on the stone seats and watching the play. There were also dressing tents back here for the actors.
More to come soon from the rest of the weekend!
The ampitheater-the pit is where they had the bullfights, etc.
This is where they kept the lions before they came out to fight.
Templo de Diana. It used to be the town square.
El Puente Romano-this bridge was built by the Romans to help people get across the river. Now it is a footbridge, but at one time they let cars drive on it.
Tombs for the wealthy people at the time. They were really short!
The circulo where they had charriot races.
Notice that the statues do not have heads...that is because when the emperor or other important officials died or went out of office they did not want to have to make a whole new staute, so they just replaced the heads and arms.
In front of the theater where plays were performed.
This is a garden behind the theater where people could walk around if they got tired from sitting on the stone seats and watching the play. There were also dressing tents back here for the actors.
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