GPS estimates about twenty minutes on foot between the National Museum of Roman Art and the Alcazaba of Mérida. On the map it’s a short stroll; viewed through the history of architecture, the calculation is somewhat more interesting. Between the two points appear a theatre and a Roman amphitheatre, a temple from the 1st century BCE, remains of the ancient forum, buildings erected atop earlier constructions and an Andalusian fortress.
If we also widen the radius a little, an aqueduct, a circus, religious architecture from different periods and even a bridge by Santiago Calatrava enter the scene. Two thousand years of construction concentrated in one city.
Augusta Emerita was founded in the year 25 BCE to house veteran soldiers of the Cantabrian Wars and ended up becoming the capital of Lusitania, one of the western provinces of the Roman Empire. The Mérida archaeological complex, designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993, comprises 22 elements, but staying with its Roman legacy leaves out a large part of history. After Rome came the Visigoths, Muslims and Christians, and each period built upon the previous one, reused structures, changed uses and left new layers.
