Santiponce, Andalusia, Spain
Hi all 👋🏻
With my next post into the Architecture+Design Community I want to show you The Roman amphitheatre and the rest of the well preserved Roman settlement that is located in Sevilla, Spain.
It is located in the town of Santiponce in the province of Sevilla in Spain 🇪🇸 About 9 km northwest of Sevilla itself.
Northwest of Sevilla.
Here I zoomed in onto the site, the town is Santiponce.
I visited this amphitheater on our trip to Sevilla not that long ago on 28 of October 2021. My husband has been there before, with his parents as he lives in Spain already 15 years, and we talked about it when we were planning on going to Sevilla for a long weekend.
Of course I want to see it too as it is rather fascinating. 🤩
Photographs are taken with my iPhone as my DSLR camera died as most of you already know 😇 still saving up for a new one.
Let me tell you first a little bit more about this amphitheater before I show you around it the site.
More information You can find in this website!
It states:
”Italica (Spanish: Itálica) north of modern-day Santiponce, 9 km northwest of Seville in southern Spain, was an Italic settlement founded by the Roman general Scipio in the province of Hispania Baetica. It was the birthplace of Roman Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and possibly Theodosius.
It flourished under the reign of Hadrian, becoming an elaborate urban centre and achieving a significant political and economic status in the region.
The modern town of Santiponce overlies the pre-Roman Iberian settlement and part of the well-preserved Roman city.
Italica was the first Roman settlement in Spain and the first Roman city outside of Italy. It was founded in 206 BC by Publius Cornelius Scipio during the Second Carthaginian War upon a native Iberian town of the Turdetani (dating back at least to the 4th c. BC) as a settlement for his Italic veterans, likely a majority of socii and a minority of Roman citizens, and named Italica after its inhabitants.
The nearby native and Roman city of Hispalis (Seville) was and would remain a larger city, but Italica's importance derived from its illustrious origin and from the fact that it was close enough to the Guadalquivir to control the area”.
** THE SITE:**
As no modern city covered many of Italica's buildings of the nova urbs, the result is an unusually well-preserved Roman city with cobbled Roman streets and mosaic floors still in situ. Many rich finds can also be seen in the Seville Archaeological Museum, with its famous marble statue of Trajan.
The archaeological site of Italica encompasses mainly the nova urbs with its many fine buildings from the Hadrianic period. The original vetus urbs (old town) lies under the present town of Santiponce.
Extensive excavation and renovation of the site has been done recently and is continuing.
The small baths and the Theatre are some of the oldest visible remains, both built before Hadrian.
Italica’s amphitheatre was the third largest in the Roman Empire at the time, being slightly larger than the Tours Amphitheatre in France. It seated 25,000 spectators, about half as many as the Colosseum in Rome.”
Let’s go back to the amphitheater and city remains!
I will show you what I saw as we walk around it…
We start our walk at the entrance and see this structure in front of us. These are the outside remains from the amphitheater.
We walk passed this.
And decide to go and have a look into the vaults on the outside rings under the steps of the amphitheater.
Here a small viewpoint of the amphitheater. It is so large that it is really hard to photograph from in it to capture all.
But stay with me, at the end of my post we visit the amphitheater from it’s highest point and we can have a great overview of it. See also my first photograph. 😉
It is so large to stand here. Imagine how it must have been many many moons ago 😁
Let’s take a closer look at everything we see.
Look at the arch that was preserved. This is under the steps.
Other openings/ doorways into the vaults.
Steps up to lead to the seating areas to watch the fights.
Now we are on the outside of it, walking around.
Look from the other side.
I found this in the floor walking out one end of it. Some even miss it. I think it’s for rainwater.
Look at it’s design. Very beautiful.
We walk now towards the rest of the settlement.
It’s a long walk in the heat of the sun, but we continue…
Exedra building
The sign reads: ”This is a magnificent example of opus sectile, one of the most precious pavements of the roman world, very solicited by the wealthy classes, made from marble plaques finely crafted in regular shapes and disposed in geometrical designs.”
The sun is in the wrong spot right now and cast a harsh shadow but I still manage to capture this unique floor, the remains of it that is.
Our view around…
Beautiful.
Next we find more mosaic floors from buildings in this settlement.
Look how well preserved they are. They found so much of them. Some they even could fully restore.
The sign states:
”In this part of the area were found the rests of one of the galleries of a large courtyard, peristyle, and a large rectangular central hall. Symmetrically, on each side of the central hall are found two other halls giving access to rooms, communicating with each other.
Altogether, this part of the building is close to a domestic structure, although the limited knowledge available does not allow to define it properly. In these rooms are located some of the best preserved mosaics of Italica. There are two of them that stand out. The mosaic of Theseus and the labyrinth, and the mosaic of Bacchus.”
We find here the remains of the NEPTUNO BUILDING RESIDENTIAL AREA.
Look how wonderful the mosaic’s are.
Closer look.
Our view up now.
Next we reach the mosaic’s of the birds.
It’s a large area this room.
Closer up to the birds.
So many different birds are represented.
One very close by. Beautiful isn’t it?
Next I want to show you some details higher up.
The capitals of some columns.
See them in this photograph?
We see here a domestic altar of which it’s mosaic floor remains.
Look at it’s beauty 🥰
Stunning right?
See all the rooms…
Are you still with me? Hope so… a few more mosaics, some baths and them we go back to the amphitheater to end this post.
Let’s go… 😎😁
The baths:
We are standing here on a tall structure to overview the sight, from the ground you can not really see them.
They are part of the PLANETARIUM HOUSE.
From afar.
A shadow of me… and some stunning mosaic. I am truly enjoying myself here.
Some details and a different view for you to change it up a bit.
Still in hibernation. 🐌🐌🐌🐌 have you seen my snail painting?
Here Is a link to my painting and the step by steps as I created : Here we go!
The vaults.
Openings in the structure where the sun is penetrating ☀️☀️☀️
Hallways…
Lookouts…
Intricate shadows of closed gates at the top of the stairs leading towards the seating area outside.
Some details…
And this last photograph ends our walk around. 👋🏻 Until next time!
Hope you enjoyed my photos of this ROMAN SETTLEMENT in SEVILLA, Spain from not that long ago as much as I did. Thank you for looking and reading 😊 🙏🏻 If you ever are in the neighbourhood of Sevilla, do have a visit. It is worth it to see so much history.
Any questions or comments, let me know. Always happy to help.
Have a great day all 😎
Grtz Jackie
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