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.