Italica

The archaeological set of Italica, located in the Sevillian municipality of Santiponce, is the oldest Roman establishment of the peninsula. The city of Italica was founded on year 206 to of C. by general Publio Cornelio Escipion establishing in her the wounded soldiers who had fought against the Carthaginians in Ilipa, place where at the moment the town Alcala del Rio is located. The name of Italica comes from the origin mother country of general Escipion, Italy, and at a first moment the city had the legal rank of Vicus Civium Romanorum.

The greatest development arrived with the emperors Frame Ulpio Trajano (53-117), born in the city, and Publio Aelio Adriano (76-138). Under the mandate of Adriano, who was born in Rome but whose family came from Italica, the city obtained a great development and obtained the category of colony with the name of Colony Aelia Augusta Italica. As much the size as the wealth of the city was decaying between centuries III and IV.

the new and the old city

the amphitheatre

The zone opened to the public is formed by the part of the district constructed by Adriano in the first third of century II, Nova Urbs, a theater located in the Vetus Urbs and a located modern park around the amphitheatre, also are constructed by Adriano. The streets of the new district are characterized by their width and its porticadas sidewalks. It honors by the buildings public, six reason why it is known until now, and by the Domus, magnificent houses that form a luxurious set residential filled with mosaics, statues and concerned marbles of Greece and Mauritania. The city is walled and it is acceded through a door flanked by two rectangular towers. As much the amphitheatre as the theater is located outside the walled enclosure.

The first monument found to the entrance of the deposit is the amphitheatre in ruins, one of the best one conserved of Spain, with capacity for 25,000 people. Still they conserve the immense sand and a grave, that covered with a wood structure, was used like zone on watch for the spectacles with beasts and gladiators. The theater on the other hand, dates from the time of Augusto, end of century I to of C. and principles of century I d. of C. Within the walled enclosure, the houses of Nova Urbs can be visited. Most of them they receive his name by the mosaics or ornamentaciones that still are conserved. The House of the Exedra is located in a great structure constructed around a rectangular vestibule in whose center there is a curvilinear swimming pool. Also it had a series of rooms adorned with mosaics. The villa received the name by the original disposition of one of the northern sides, formed by a vault that covered great exedra.

Mosaics

The House of Neptune contains thermal baths and only has been partially excavated. Also we can see the House of Hila, guinea pig names has been taken from the subject of of its numerous mosaics. This villa offers the best collection of geometric mosaics, still in situ, in Italica. The House of los Pavos Reales also takes its name by one from the mosaics of its northern side that reproduces a scene with peacocks. It emphasizes a great furnace in one of the rooms that the function did of kitchen. The House of the Planetarium has a mosaic that contains medallones with representations of the planetary divinities that give name to the days of the week in the Roman calendar.

Next to the corner of the House of Exedra, is a public thermal complex. The thermal baths, that were excavated for the first time in 1861, traditionally are known by the name Baths of the Moorish Queen. In Nova Urbs there is located a temple ,dedicated to the emperor Trajano ,Traianeum, is demolished and be stripped of its marble at the end of the imperial period to re-use its pieces in other zones of the city.