Segobriga: A well preserved Roman City that thrived in the heart of Spain

Just imagine a fully functioning and well developed city, that seem to have everything a nice city would crave; theater, houses of worship, instructional halls and fori, craft centers, sewers, race tracks, gymnasium, amphitheater sitting over five thousand spectators, mansions, regular homes, swimming pool and bath houses, high city walls and imposing city gates etc. Then, all of a sudden, the residents of the city pack up and leave, forever! If you imagined this, you would be picturing Segobriga, a roman city in the heart of Spain., then part of the Roman Empire.

Segobriga is in the current Cuenca Province of the Catilla La Mancha region of Spain, just an hour south east of Madrid. It is one of the few most complete, well preserved cities built purposedly as a Roman city when the Romans defeated the Carthaginians in the first Punic war and went ahead to colonize the Celt-Iberian people in the peninsular and began the Romanization of the area. The city thrived for centuries but was believed to have been abandoned when the Moors and the Moslems invaded and occupied Spain. However, while Segobriga fell into ruins, the structures all stand strong today that virtually every facet of the city is vivid and tangible today, presenting a compelling picture of what life was like in the area over 2000 years ago.

The city, which was deliberately and strategically built on the highest point of the sloping landscape looks majestic on approach. One obvious cultural practice noticed right away is how the entrance to the city, outside the city wall was lined with graves. For some cultural reasons the people buried their dead outside the city walls, not sure if it had a religious component to it as some current cultures bury their dead as a protective force around their town. The graves, though hollow now, still retain the stonewalls with which they were constructed. Both individual, pair and family graves all lined up the entrance to the city. There were also further well developed cemetaries (necropolis) that lie a few yards away from the road entrance, with several graves numbering in the hundreds. Further away from those were another set of cemetaries and basilica that were built by the Visigoths when they defeated the Romans and became the main power brokers in the city for 200 more years before it got abandoned when the Moslems invaded.

The Theater

Once inside the city walls, every direction you looked had a familiar structure which you can easily walked up to for closer detail inspection and could actually recreate the event the structure was built for. In the gladatorial arena (the amphitheater), I walked into the area the gladiators waited their turn beofre a fight or performance, a room the size of half a standard room today and wondered what may have been on their mind as they prepared for a life or death battle. Just not too far from their waiting area were holding areas for the wild animals that performed or fought in the arena. Surprisingly the circular arena itself is as big and wide as today´s baseball field, with the surrounding concrete bleachers running as high around the arena as today´s sitting arrangement in a baseball diamond.

Amphitheater: I just wrestled a lion and won

Across the street from the gladiator´s amphitheater was a very imposing theater, complete with a large stage, orchestra pit and a stack of audience area that again ascended in the order we are familiar with today. The backwall doubled as the city wall because of its height, as the entire city was surrounded by 1300 meter wall with several gates, This theater was built in the first century and was where what would be classic tragedies as well as comedies were performed. Remarkably, class distinctions were very sharp then as even the sitting arrangements were marked by social standing and in fact the theater sitting arrangements were concretely marked off to separate the classes.

Watching a play in the theater

Perhaps the politcal and social behive of activities of the city was at the forum, which was a very large rectangular space with huge columns lining its side. It must have been the seat of power and where the major decisions concerning the city and its political life was conducted. It lies on the eastern side of the city and was constructed in the Augustan times as part of the urbanization program of the city..

What would be today´s city swimming pool was the baths in Segobriga. These were located between the the Theater and the street that runs close to the city wall, and not too far from the Amphitheater. It perhaps was for hygenic purpose as well as served a social and business networking function in the community. The changing rooms were like today´s locker rooms in most gyms, with individual stone etched row of niches where bathers could lay their clothes and possessions while lounging in a dry circular sauna in the center. The varied temperatured baths lay to the north of the room.. The sewer system and latrines were not too far from the baths, as you could still see the tunnel with stone-slab covering, as it snakes down the slope and away from the city where the waste is emptied.

The Bath and Sauna Locke

The historical influence of Segobriga as a Roman municipality and regional and administrative power in hispano-roman Iberia was well documented in the museum that is built on the grounds of the city. Objects and important carvings from the city are preserved in the museum to prevent them from further deterioration.

Unfortuanately but understandably, the public is not allowed to photograph any of those objects or the intricately exquisite sculptures that bring to life some of the movers and shakers of the Segobrigan society. Fittingly though, the ancient citizens of this city did not build right on the ruins of the city they abandoned for what ever reasons, but moved down the road about a mile to establish a current city named Saelices. I picture SEgobriga rivalling any modern city in beauty and organization but also recognize that life for the ordinary citizens must have been full of drudgery to maintained all that, and also maintained their place in a very stratified society.

Teruel: The home of Mudejar Architecture

Due south from Zaragoza was another Aragon province called Teruel with its seat located in the city of Teruel as well. This town was founded in 1176 by Sancho Sanchez Munoz and Blasco Garces Marcila and later became a cosmopolitan center with significant Jewish and Muslim population amoung its Christian inhabitants. Teruel is not a typical tourist hotspot but no one could resist its local history and culture and its place as the epicenter of the Mudejar architecture in Spain. This was the medieval period when the Christian rulers commissioned Muslim architectural pieces, which is distinct from the Mosarabic influence when Christians lived under Muslim rule.

One of the numrous Mudejar style towers

The city lies almost a thousand meters above sea level with a rough and sometimes harsh climatic conditions. That got turned into an asset as Teruel became famous for its naturally cured ham, called Jamon Serrano. They also uniquely have abundance of dinosaur remains in the province, which even prompted a dinosaur theme park that is unmistakeable as you drive into the city.

With the mudejar architectural influence, many of the buildings and towers were wonders to behold in their intricacy and bright ornamental detailing. Some of the towers are now attached to museums or cathedrals while others stand alone as the buildings they were connected to had fallen out of use or even destroyed in the several battles that took place in Teruel in the Spanish civil war years.

A significant symbol of the city is the bull. The main plaza of the city is adorned with a monument that depicts a tall column on top of which is mounted a small statue of the bull, locally referred to as El Torico or the little bull. In fact the city center is now commonly called Plaza El Torico. Teruel also boasts of high quality pottery which you can purchase in the numerous gift shops around the central plaza.

El Torico

Touring San Pedro, one of the many mudejar influenced churches, whcih was built in the 16th century, it was moving to see the mausoleum housing the mummified bodies of Isabel Segura (a wealthy lady) and Diego de Marcilla, a poor guy who battled at Crusades to earn some money with the intention to return to get married with Isabel but the happy ending tragically never materialized. Envision Romeo and Juliet. The lovers of Teruel or Los Amantes de Teruel is a significant lure that is now part of the legend of this city that is at once not widely known but also nurtures its distinct history and attributes in Spanish life and culture.

My one day tour of the city was well worth it, especailly freely gallivanting all over town, checking out cathedrals, museums, chatting with students of a college of Arts and Craft right in the city center and an irony of all ironies, having lunch in a Chinese restaurant also in the downtown area. But that was after gorging myself with the Teruel local pasteries from centuries old recipes..

Aljaferia: Evolution from an old Moslem Palace to a new Aragon Regional Parliament

A feature of Zaragoza, the regional capital of the Aragon Autonomous Community (Region), is what could appropriately be referred to as its center of excellence and the epitome of the Taifa Moslem Architecture. The Aljaferia palace was constructed in the 11th century as the residence of the Moslem rulers of Zaragoza at the height of their power and the influence of Taifa Kingdoms in Spain. On my birthday in 2010, I decided to tour its grounds and walked the steps that the kings, queens and people who occupied this edifice for over a thousand years and the modern legislators and peopleof Aragon had/have walked, played, slept, debated and made great decisions in.

Welcome to Aljaferia Palace in Zaragoza

The grandeur of the palace conveys the architectural prowess as well as the intellectual pre-eminence that flourished in the era of liberal and enlightened moslem independent kingdoms in Spain. All these changed hands during the reconquest era when christian kings started recapturing cities and regions from the Moslem rulers. In 1118, Zaragoza was recaptured by King Alfonso I of Aragon, and Aljaferia became the king´s court and residence and from then on became the residence of the Christian Kings. The changes then also resulted in a good mix of what became Mudejar Architectural style.

While the basic structure remained the same, over the centuries, there had been some modifications and a few additions to meet the needs of the use at the time, including when it was briefly used as a military base. In fact a wing of it ultimately became slightly reconfigured to fit in the current Parliamentary chambers of the Aragon legislature.

Walking down the hallway

As ancient as Aljaferia palace is, it is right in the middle of the city with modern apartments sitting right across the street from which residents could look into the grounds of the palace, while a highway passes a few feet away from one side of the building, and residential parking lots sit on the other side. The front entrance had coffeeshops lining the streets across the road, presenting the palace as an oddity sitting in a modern chaotic residential and business city center.

The imposing structure left no one in doubt of its fortified defensive purpose, which was further buttressed by the semi-circular turrets and various watch .towers jutting out from the bulding. The immediate grounds was a huge moat encircling the entire infrastructure.

A model of the edifice

However the interior portions were a contrast to its stoic military outlook. The internal residential quarters boast of the best in luxurious living for any era. It has spacious rooms and halls with the most decorative arches, brick and tile works, as well as swimming pools, fountains, ornamental decorations in every nook and crevice, porticoes, courtyards for artistic and intellectual debating engagements, and down to a basement area that had various tunnels and channels running like a labyrinth of a totally different world from the upper chambers, with a gaping deep well, dug down to the river that flows several meters below the building so that water supply would neither be interrupted nor fetched from outside the grounds of the enclosed edifice.


One of the courtyards


The program literature confirms that äll of the artisitic achievements correspond to the work carried out during the second half of the 11th century under the command of Abu-Ya´far Ab-mad ibn Hud al-Muqtadir, and they serve to highlight the cultural imporatnce and the rich virtuosity of his court. Furthermore, the Aljaferia is thought to be one of the greatests pinnacles of Hispano-Moslem art, and its artistic contributions were later copied at the Reales Alcazares in Seville and of the Alhambra in Granada¨.

Obviously when the Christian kings took over the palace when Zaragoza was reconquired and reconverted to Christianity, the palace was not spared the rechristening stamp. So, during the medieval periods between the 12th and 14th centuries there was a lot of expansion and restructuring of the palace, especially in the upper floors that christianized the look and added chapels, paintings and sculptures reflecting the new power structure.

Front yard

In recognition of the Aljaferia Palace structure and its place in Aragonese life, in 1987 it became the host structure for the Regional Assembly of Aragon, The Aragonese Parliament, which represents over 1,300,000 people living in Aragon´s expanseive region made up of three provinces, Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel.

The Regional Assembly of Aragon is described as a single chamber assembly, made up of delegates elected every four years by universal, free, equal, direct and secret vote. There are currently 67 delegates in the Parlianement broken down to 14 from Teruel, 18 from Huesca and 35 from Zaragoza.

Tour completed, October 2010

It is indeed a privilege being in the halls, rooms, courtyards, basement and grounds of this magnificient structure. Who would have thought that centiuries later, I would be admiring such a wonderful piece of architecture conceived and built over a thoudand years before I was conceived. Remarkably, it looked like it was just completed a year ago.

Monasterio de Piedra: Majestic Waterfalls by Nuevalos and the Monastry of the Rocks

The big surprise that awaits you as you travel from Madrid to Zaragoza is the grand concentration of amazing waterfalls near Nuevalos within Aragon region in a place where a 12th century monastry known as Monasterio de Piedra or Monastry of the Rocks was built. The Monastry was founded by the Cisterian monks in 1194 in a location that is most peaceful and conducive for the contemplative lonesome life even by today´s standards.

The Piedra river which flows nearly, cascades at various points into extremely wide stadium sized cauldron of limestone canyons in splendid splashes of incandescent waterfalls. Some cascade in huge volumes down steep 100 feet drops while others cascade the surface of terraced rock outcrops along the mountain-sized Canyons. The contrast between the rugged canyons and the extremely lushy greenery of various plants and foliages gives it a paradisic and serene quality.

Over the years, caves and tunnels have been borne through some of the rocks and the managers of the park have gingerly created walkways for visitors to get up close within breathing distance of waterfalls that are over 70 feet above the ground whitewater levels. It gets more eery as you wander around the cavernous structure while hearing the rivulets and streams of water travel down the surface of the rocks that embowels you.

As you drive into the surface lot that houses the ancient monastry buildings that has now been converted to hotel rooms for staying guests, restraurants, gift shops and cafes, you get guided down a path by foot, that starts descending down a quarter mile to the flat bottoms of the hills, which spreads out into a behive of aquatic culture. It contains several whitewater rivers surging by while others are steady clear springs flowing gentlying down what seems like a circuitious route, while further down, some of the water are cordonned into fish farms and other aquatic animal nusery. From the base, any direction you look up, would shines mirrors of waterfalls streaming down the mountains and gently caressing your face with vapors of the freshly sented waters of this peaceful world away from all worlds.

The extremely natural beauty of the environment was definitely the attraction that brought the monks to the site. The monastry construction was said to have been done in three architectural stages which are clearly observable. There was the Gothic stage in the 13th century, the Renaissance Gothic stage in the 16th Centruy and the Classical-Baroque stage in the 18th Centruy.

While the reisdence of the monks now serves as a hotel, for visitors to the park complex, the cloister of the monastry especially the chapter house seemed like the worker-beehive of the monastic live. It is a complex built in the 12th century that has areas with centuries old equipment for wine making, bakery, which was the first location chocolate was made in Spain and the old world, sheds for horse carriages, prayer chapels, and even burial chambers in a basement structure in the main church-hall. It was remarkable that some bottles of wine made when the monastry was still in active use are preserved and displayed for visitors like me to view centuries later. Even the food they had on their menu list where also on display.

Monasterio de Piedra was indeed a complete city all by itself. It was run superbably even with hours it took to nearby towns by horse drawn carriages posted by the stable area. It did not seem that they lacked anything and indeed led a truly monastic and contented life totally surrounded by nature and peace. It was a great diversion on the way to Zaragoza the capital city of Aragon Region and today´s 5th largest city in Spain.

October 12, 2010: National Day In Spain

October 12 that is celebrated in the US as Columbus Day, with its sometimes controversial connontaions is also celebrated in Spain for the same purposes but with a different mindset. The day is celebrated as Fiesta Nacional or National Day in commemoration of Columbus arrival in the Americas.

Spain has marked the day with different emphasis over the year, since 1957, it has been celebrated as Dia de la Hispanidad, day of the hispania, which emphaized their connection to the entire hispanic world spanning Asia, Africa and the Americas. Pre-1957, along with other hispanic communities around the world the day was celebrated as ¨Dia de la Raza¨.

October 12 and the Constitution Day celbrated on December 6 are the two national day celebrations in Spain. The celebration was marked with aerial military manouvres, parades led by the military corp, diplomatic observers and general merriment. But the mood this year seemed a bit sombre perhaps because of the tight economic situation the country is going through at this time. The pubic even had occasional bursts of disapprovals against officials in venting their frustration on the economic situation.

I took the relaxed atmosphere to tour and take in sites of Madrid starting with the Royal gardens called Los Jardenes del Buen Retiro, then important buidlings and boulevards like the Spanish central bank, Banco de España, the Puerta de Alcalá, the various neighborhoods af Sol, Chueca, Gran via, Atocha and the rest of the central parts of Madrid.

The pictures below were taken at different locations.

Carranque: A Step Back in Time and Grandeur

Unlike yesterday in Madrid that was wet and soggy with a steady drizzle all day long, today October 10, 2010 was a pleasant sunny autumn day. It turned out warm and yet comfortably breezy for a a good tour out in the countryside. My point of interest for the day following breakfast, was to visit a roman compound that existed in the fourth century near the modern existing town called Carranque. Carranque is smack 45 kilometers equidistant south of Madrid or north of Toledo but officially les in the province of Toledo in Castilla La Mancha region.

According to the program guide of what is now being restored as an Archaeological Park of Carranque was discovered in 1983 accidentally when a mosaic was uncovered. Samuel Lopez Iglesias made the discovery while he was plowing the fields close to the Guadarrama river. And as typical of Spain archeologists descended on the area with series of excavations resulting in one of the most important monuimental groups of Roman monuments unearthed in modern Spain.

Touring the first building referenced as the ¨Basilica¨, which seemed to have been built for a civilian rather than military purpose, but at some point it became used for ritualistic and burial purposes. There were several tombs intricately laid out in various corners within the building. There were also several displays of crucifixes, baptisimal fonts and sarcophagi that were recovered from the grounds . You could see some of the burial vaults in the pictures behind me.

The official history also confirms that ´throughout history, the building was reused by the vrious settlers of the region, as Visigoth remians (sarcophagi) and Moorish remains (an inscription on one of the columns) has also been found. The marble columns which are still displayed in prone position on the side of the building are in remarkable shape and were hewn from one big piece of marble said to have been brought from near east, possbily the present day Turkish region. This hypothesis was based on the decorative markings on the columns depicting features of that part of the world, including mythological scenes etc.

Though the building is flattened to its foundations with features that are at floor level showing elaborate detail, there was one section that still stands and towers what I would consider above 15 feet. Remarkably the brick and plaster work looks well chisseled and almost modern.

The living quarters known as the Villa of Materno is a showcase of the splendor that depicted the status and importance of the owner of such magnificent edifice in that and indeed any era. It is believed that the edifice may have belonged to Maternus Cinigius, the uncle of Emperor Theodosius 1 of Rome. Virtually every floor of the 20 room edifice was paved with mosaic designs that remarkably survived till this day in their original vibrant colors and intricate patterns. As can be observed while touring the interior of the building, the huge mansion is arranged on a square plan with a big courtyard through which you could access the various rooms and recesses of the mansion. They also had a heating system that was constructed with an oven-like furnace at a corner that piped in warm air under the slightly elevated bed and living room portions of the mansion.

 

The program book confirms that the most outstanding mosaics are those found in the main bedrooms of the villa, which are scenes depicting heroes and gods. Various sections of the mansion had depictions of what the people at the time thought appropriate for that section, be it the bedoroom, dinning room, rest area etc. Whoever commissioned that mansion was even by today´s standard extremely rich and very important personality.

Perhaps excavations will continue to tell more stories about the actual workers or villages that serviced this great edifice that is litterally a few feet away from the Guadarama river that I walked across into the splendid compound.

The Eagle Landed Safely in Madrid, Spain

Back again to Spain for my annual vacation. Here is a short note to let you know that I had a smooth flight and landed safely in Madrid at 9am, (3am in the US).

I started off in Madison around noon October 6, 2010, flew up to Minneapolis, then from Minneapolis to Atlanta, and took off from Atlanta straight to Madrid at 7pm, arriving Madrid at 9am October 7, 2010 (which is actually Atlanta´s 3am). It was a great flight though the food sucked.

As usual, no hassles at the airport, it took me less than  10 minutes to get my luggage, clear customs and passport control and got out into town. My Wisconsin Maple Syrup I brought with me did not burst in my luggage. (Yes, it seems like pancakes and syrup are so foreign to Spaniards, some of my friends asked that I bring them some. You can´t even find them in any store as its not part of the regular breakfast diet)

Resting up a bit before combing through Madrid and Toledo later today. Over the weekend I should be heading up to Zaragoza in the Aragon Region, them Valencia, Alicante, Murcia etc. Valencia and Alicante are in the Valencia region, rough equivalent of US state and Murcia is also in Murcia region, all these are on the east coast of Spain facing the sea. Some refer to it as the Spanish Riviera. I will send updates whgen I visit various monuments there.

Hasta manana!