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.