Roman Spain
Take a trip to key cities in the Roman province of Hispania!
Offering an alternative to visiting Italy, our Roman Spain tour takes you through some of the most important and impressive Roman cities – Mérida, Cadiz, Seville, and Italica – plus several smaller, but no less impressive sites added. There’s also an option to visit Baelo Claudio and/or Córdoba.
The programme can be shortened to include archaeological sites and museums specific to your areas of study.
Day 1 Fly into Seville or Gibraltar, meet courier and depart for Seville Hotel by coach. After check-in, a 2.5 hour guided walking tour of Roman Seville, or Hispalis, as it was known during the Imperial era. View multiple spoliated Roman pieces like the columns of the Alameda de Hercules and the Augustan era inscriptions at the base of the Cathedral’s bell tower as well as the more modern key locations in the city. Evening Meal at Hotel.
Day 2 After breakfast at hotel, meet coach and depart for Cadiz.
Founded by the Phoenicians as Gadir, it was known as Gades to the
Romans with a full colony name of Augusta Urbs Iulia Gaditana. It was
here that Julius Caesar supposedly saw the statue of Alexander the
Great and cried at his own lack of achievements by the same age. Take a
guided tour around the Roman Theatre, Museum, Salting Factory and Erytheia Archaeological Park before having lunch and some free time in the city. The Theatre could seat around 10,000 spectators, making it one of the largest in the empire. Return to Seville by coach for Evening Meal at Hotel.
Day 3 Breakfast, check-out, meet courier and depart for Italica. The town of Italica is the supposed birthplace of Trajan and Hadrian. The two hour visit includes the amphitheatre, Hadrianic Baths, Traianeum, aqueduct and remains of several houses plus free time for your own exploration. Your courier will assist with lunch before departing for Mérida via the remains of Regina Turdulorum and an hour’s self-guided visit around the remains of the Roman city taking in Theatre, Macellum, Temple to Augustan Piety, the base of the Capitolium cellae and a stretch of the Decumanus Maximus. Coach transfer to local Hotel for check-in and Evening Meal.
Day 4 After breakfast, depart on foot with full day courier on foot for a three hour guided walking tour of Roman Mérida: Temples of Mars and Diana, Forum, House of the Amphitheatre and Arch of Trajan. Your courier will assist with lunch before two self-guided visits of Theatre and Amphitheatre plus Museum of Roman Art. As the capital of the province, Roman Augusta Emerita minted coins under both Augustus and Tiberius. Mérida’s Museum of Roman Art is one of the best Rome-specific museums in the world.
Day 5 Depart Hotel after breakfast with full day courier
for coach transfer to the Theatre of Medellin for a guided tour. Recently restored it is nowan award-winning site with a fantastic view. Return to Mérida for lunch before self-guided visit remaining sites: Roman Circus and San Lazaro’s Thermae, Los Milagros Aqueduct and castellum aquae. The Circus is one of the better preserved of the 63 known to exist across the span of the empire. The last self-guided visit of the day is to the banks of the Guadiana River: the Moreria Archaeological Site, House of Mithraeum and Columbarium. The House of the Mithraeum is a strange one; not a confirmed Mithraeum as such, yet offering up a plethora of Mithraic statuary and other Figure 4: Medellin Theatre
Day 6 Breakfast, check-out, load luggage onto coach and depart for Bohonal Archaeological Park. When the Roman town Augustobriga on the banks of the River Tagus was flooded in 1963 (and now underwater in Valdecañas reservoir), the remains of two temples were rescued and taken to what has now become the Bohonal Archaeological Park. Spend some time in this wonderful environment, before coach to Madrid airport for return flight to the UK.
Feel free to contact us to tailor your own tour. 01342 324727
Figure 1: The statue of Hercules at the Alameda 
Figure 2: Italica Amphitheatre
Figure 3: Mérida Theatre
related pieces. Your students can postulate theories as you explore the site!
Optional Extras:
i. Baelo Claudia has some of the most comprehensive remains of a Roman town on the peninsula, with a basilica, theatre, market, and a Temple of Isis. One can see all the way across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco whilst exploring the site.
ii. Córdoba was the capital of the province of Baetica. Sites to see in the town are the Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir River, the remains of a temple built between the reigns of Claudius and Domitian, a cylinder mausoleum, Theatre and Forum. The Córdoba Museum also features a variety of pieces; mosaics, reliefs, and statuary, including a bust of Clodius Albinus, which is a rarity.
iii. If you wish to add in further sites in Seville, then we can look at adding the Archaeological Museum, where you’ll see a variety of finds, including statues, inscriptions, and mosaics from Italica. Other additions can include the Antiqvarium, a museum built around building remains from the age of Tiberius up until the 6th century, along with a few later buildings of the 12th and 13th centuries,
the Palace of the Countess of Lebrija which comprises a large collection of very well-preserved Roman mosaics, as well as smaller pieces like amphorae and vases.
Finally, the Casa di Pilatos is another option, which has in its main courtyard a selection of statues that include, Minerva and Ceres, as well as a bust of Scipio Africanus.
< Figure 5: Temple of Diana, Mérida
< Figure 6: Puente Romano at Mérida the Guadiana River
over the Guadiana River
< Figure 7: Mosaic from Las Tiendas Roman Villa,
now at Mérida Museum of Roman Art
< Figure 8: Baleo Claudia
< Amphitheatre of Tarragona Spain
< Temple of Augustus, Barcelona
< Baelo Claudia Foro
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