INTRODUCCTION: History of Astorga

The strategic location of Astorga caused the settlement of the Roman conquerors more than two thousand years ago, first, with a military camp of the Legio X Gemina and after with the establishment of the administrative capital of one of its demarcations: conventus asturicense. This has led to archaeological richness, which shows the economic vitality of the Roman Asturica from the first century A.C to the beginning of the third.

The phenomenon of the pilgrimage to Compostela, right in the Middle Ages, provided with a recovery of Astorga as crossroads during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It was then when the construction of churches, monasteries, hospitals and neighbourhood areas turned its town planning with the burial of the old regular design of the Roman time into an organic growth, typical of a medieval society. At the end of the fifteenth century, it begins an unsteady balance between the bishop's and the marquesal's authority with the building of the cathedral.

But until the second half of the nineteenth century, with the arrival of the railway, the development of the current city,which expands outside its walls, does not begin. Astorga is again a significant network of road connections, and it recovers the social and economical vibrancy, which has today in the tourism as one of its main focal points. welcome.

First walls and Roman gate

The first walls of Astorga,from high-imperial age, gave way to another wall, more ambitious and still preserved nearly in full. Its construction happens at the same time as a moment of reorganization in the fourth century, which gave a new role to the city. The cessation of the mine exploitations turned it into a strong space of vigilance of the roads for the transit of agricultural produce intended for the northern armies .The Roman gate,adjacent to the Cathedral,is the best preserved example of this building stage.

You can visit if for free

Second Walls

The Roman walls were rebuilt by Bishop Nuño around 1242 and they underwent several repairs during the Middle Ages, which has handed us down their present elevation and the disappearance of their gates and wickets (gates of the King, the Sun, the Bishop and Iron).Their perimeter reached 2,100 metres surrounding the 27 hectares with trapezoid shape which comprise the historic city. They have about thirty semicircular round turrets with an average diameter of seven metres. Their grand aspect, linked to the collection of the Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace, forms one of the best known images of Astorga.

You can visit if for free

LEGIONNAIRE FORT

Rome took the control of the nearby gold-bearing exploitations and of their transport into the metropolis, which explains this first military settlement and the following decision to establish the capital of the Roman administrative demarcation in Asturica, from the Cantabrian Sea to the west of the valley of the River Duero.

The fortification we can see consists of two moats in V-shape section, parallel and exterior, of the kind of fossae fastigatae. They were dug in the natural gravel of the edge of the hill in which the city is settled to increase their defensive effectiveness.

Around the first third of the first century A.C, the interior moat was rendered useless and the construction of a stone wall began, which would protect the city. This first wall had circular towers, one of which was laid in the moat, also invaded by the first buildings of the city , the street and sanitary networks. Later on, in the Flavian age, this first fortification was abandoned and the city extended its area comprised by another stone defence, of older history.

You can visit it in the Roman Route

MAJOR ROMAN THERMAL BATHS

The Major Roman Thermal Baths of Asturica occupied a central position in the town planning of the city and they were one of its most impressive public buildings. They were placed in the intersection of the two most important road networks and in direct connection with two of the main sewers, still in use today.

Built from the middle of the first century A.C onwards, they would be abandoned , according to the archaeological materials recovered in the fifth century. From this thermal complex ,we have been able to identify a large frigidarium -cold room- and several spaces heated up by means of hypocaustum, in addition to an apodyterium or changing room with a by-chromatic mosaic of huge size, and the pool of the frigidarium.

You can't visit it

MINOR ROMAN THERMAL BATHS

Romans conceived of the public baths as spaces intended for the personal cleanliness and social relationships. Their organization corresponds to a functional structure, of linear way. Their rooms were combined with water at different temperature: following the changing room (apodyterium), there is cold water (frigidarium), warm (tepidarium), hot (caldarium) and a sauna (sudatorium or laconicum depending on whether or not it has steam).

They were heated up by the system of hipocastum or underground air chambers fed by one or several furnaces of refractory brick (praefurnium) under the rooms.

The construction of the Minor Roman Thermal Baths of Asturica must have taken place in the middle of the first century A.C, although at the end of the second century they were remodelled, to be abandoned in the middle of the third century. In one of the drains,closed by flat roof-tiles in a double slope, several jewels appeared, which indicates the preferential use by the privileged classes.

You can visit it in the Roman Route

Aedes Augusti

In the centre of the western side of the forum of Astorga, a room or chamber was built , preceded by an entry with columns and ended in an apse. This arrangement and the sumptuous paving of marble sheets (optus sectille) creating geometric by-chromatic motifs have led to identify it with a temple dedicated to the memory of Emperor Augustus, to promote the imperial cult.

The Aedes is made in opus caementicium or Roman concrete, and would reserve the apse-shaped ornamental top to a missing altar dedicated to the imperial cult, where the augur would carry out sacrifices of small animals, probably birds.

You can visit it in the Roman Route

ROMAN FORUM

In the highest place of the city, the forum of Astorga was a vast space around which the public buildings were arranged, scenery and epicentre of the city life. It was a large quadrangle close to 30,000 m2, defined by a monumental portico, that ended in exedrae. Buildings for official worship would occupy its centre. In the case of Astorga, the forum space has survived in the current Plaza Mayor (main square), much smaller.

You can visit if for free

ERGASTULA

In the centre of the old Roman forum, opposite the temple dedicated to Emperor Augustus (Aedes Augusti) one of the best preserved buildings of the Roman Astorga is sited. It is the Ergastula, a big vaulted gallery (sort of semi-subterranean tunnel, of approximately 50 metres long) which would form one of the sides of the monumental complex of the forum.

Today, the preserved part represents a spectacular gallery whose walls and vault were made in opus caementicium or Roman concrete, planked in wood. Its construction may date back to the year 30 A.C. After several modern uses- as part of houses or private commerces, among others- it was purchased by the City Council as the base of the Roman Museum of the city.

You can visit it in the Roman Route or separately, buying the ticket

ROMAN MUSEUM

The extraordinary development of the urban archaeology in Astorga during the last twenty years has allowed us to have at our disposal a volume of information about its past of an incalculable historical value. The large amount of excavated sites, besides the buildings that can be visited, has provided us with a good deal of everyday life and artisans items, and with interior decorations too. The Roman Museum is the perfect place to make them known.

The restoration of the Ergastula was carried out to locate this museum; two more floors were built above it, one for permanent exhibitions and the other one with working rooms of the municipal archaeological department. It was inaugurated in the year 2000.

You can visit it in the Roman Route or separately, buying the ticket

DEPTH OF THE ROMAN MUSEUM

Pompeii style paintings, inscriptions, bronzes, coins, jewels or pottery found under the houses of the modern city are reflections of the vibrancy of the city itself in the Antiquity and they show the lifestyle of its inhabitants, providing us with an overall view of its history in the first five centuries of the Age.

You can visit it in the Roman Route or separately, buying the ticket

ROMAN DOMUS

The Domus is one of the first preserved relics as a result of the modern archaeological excavations.

The preserved part may have been arranged around a large columned courtyard or peristyle. Chronologically dated between the end of the first century A.C and the first half of the fourth, it must have belonged to an important family in the city, which would explain why its various renovations and expansions reached even to occupy a public space on a sewer. The rooms were paved in different materials, according to their importance, using signinum opus, soil mortar mixed with brick fragments for service areas and bedrooms; opus spicatum or pavement brick on edge provided in the form of fish bones, for dining rooms and offices, and a unique mosaic for the Uecus or the reception or guests' hall.

The rooms were decorated with murals with plant motifs. Parallel to the edge of the street, the house had a small thermal complex, heated up by hipocastum, of private usage.

You can visit if for free

THE MOSAIC OF THE BEAR AND THE BIRDS

The reception hall or Uecus was devised in the change of the second century to the third an it has the so-called mosaic of the bear and the birds. Made with small limestone tiles, the mosaic was devoted to Orpheus. While outdoor scenes are an allegory of the autumn through branches and bunches of grapes crushed by birds, the motifs inside ordered eight medallions of animals typical of the myth of Orpheus, who would graze them with the strumming of his lyre, a gift from Apollo,since the lyre represents the soul and the animals, the body.

You can visit if for free

SEWERS

The Romans laid the foundations of their empire around the predominance of the cities and focus of power. The life in the Roman metropolis demanded to take a wide range of health measures. The sewers went round inside these cities and under the pavement of their streets and roads, which enabled the removal of sewage waters towards the rivers , in our case, towards the rivers Jerga and Tuerto.

The first findings of old sewers take place in the sixties of the nineteenth century, although the systematic explorations of José María Luengo in 1946 gave rise to the discovery of the branch corresponding to the Garden of the Synagogue. Its design allows us to make an idea of the town planning of Asturica Augusta , which reflects its regular and orthogonal shape with wide streets.

It seems that initially lintelled channels were built, with limited capacity, but due to the city's growth in the second half of the first century, it was necessary to develop a second network for higher flow rates. Around the year 80 AD, vaulted galleries were erected, with heights up to 1.80 metres sometimes with side platforms for crossing. Its building technique uses masonry walls, which were complemented by and a stone barrel vault arranged as a rough voussoir bound with mortar. Its floor was usually of slate.

You can visit it in the Roman Route