Aqueduct of Segovia

The Aqueduct of Segovia (or more precisely, the aqueduct bridge) is a Roman aqueduct and one of the most significant and best-preserved ancient monuments left on the Iberian Peninsula. It is located in Spain and is the foremost symbol of Segovia, as evidenced by its presence on the city’s coat of arms.

As the aqueduct lacks a legible inscription (one was apparently located in the structure’s attic, or top portion), the date of construction cannot be definitively determined. The actual date of the Aqueduct’s construction has always been considered a mystery although it was thought to have been during the 1st century AD, during the reigns of the Emperors Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan. At the end of the 20th century, a German archaeologist managed to decipher the text on the dedication plaque by studying the anchors that held the now missing bronze letters in place. Using this method, he was able to determine that actually it was the Emperor Domitian (AD 81-96) who ordered its construction. The beginnings of Segovia itself are likewise not definitively known. The people called Vaccaei are known to have populated the place or area before the Romans conquered the city. Roman troops sent to control the area stayed behind to settle there. The area fell within the jurisdiction of the Roman provincial court (Latin conventus iuridici, Spanish convento jurídico) located in Clunia.

The aqueduct transports water from Fuente Fría river, situated in the nearby mountains, some 17 km (11 mi) from the city in a region known as La Acebeda. It runs another 15 km (9.3 mi) before arriving in the city. The water is first gathered in a tank known as El Caserón (or Big House), and is then led through a channel to a second tower known as the Casa de Aguas (or Waterhouse). There it is naturally decanted and sand settles out before the water continues its route. Next the water travels 728 m (796 yd) on a one-percent grade until it is high upon the Postigo, a rocky outcropping on which the old city center, the Segovia Alcázar, was built. Then, at Plaza de Díaz Sanz (Díaz Sanz Square), the structure makes an abrupt turn and heads toward Plaza Azoguejo (Azoguejo Square). It is there the monument begins to display its full splendor. At its tallest, the aqueduct reaches a height of 28.5 m (93 ft 6 in), including nearly 6 m (19 ft 8 in) of foundation. There are both single and double arches supported by pillars. From the point the aqueduct enters the city until it reaches Plaza de Díaz Sanz, it includes 75 single arches and 44 double arches (or 88 arches when counted individually), followed by four single arches, totalling 167 arches in all. The construction of the aqueduct follows the principles laid out by Vitruvius as he describes in his De Architectura published in the mid-first century.

The first section of the aqueduct contains 36 semi-circular arches, rebuilt in the 15th century to restore a portion destroyed by the Moors in 1072. The line of arches is organized in two levels, decorated simply, in which predominantly simple moulds hold the frame and provide support to the structure. On the upper level, the arches have a total width of 5.1 meters (16.1 ft). Built in two levels, the top pillars are both shorter and narrower than those on the lower level. The top of the structure contains the channel through which water travels, through a U-shaped hollow measuring 0.55 by 0.46 meter diameter size. The top of each pillar has a cross-section measuring 1.8 by 2.5 meters (5.9 by 8.2 feet), while the base cross-section measures approximately 2.4 by 3 meters (7.9 by 9.8 feet).

The aqueduct is built of unmortared, brick-like granite blocks. During the Roman era, each of the three tallest arches displayed a sign in bronze letters, indicating the name of its builder along with the date of construction. Today, two niches are still visible, one on each side of the aqueduct. One of them is known to have held the image of Hercules, who, according to legend, was founder of the city. The other niche now contains the images of the Virgen de la Fuencisla (the Patroness of Segovia) and Saint Stephen.

The first reconstruction of the aqueduct took place during the reign of the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, known as Los Reyes Católicos or the Catholic Monarchs. Don Pedro Mesa, the prior of the nearby Jerónimos del Parral monastery, led the project. A total of 36 arches were rebuilt, with great care taken not to change any of the original work or style. Later, in the 16th Century, the central niches and above-mentioned statues were placed on the structure. On 4 December, the day of Saint Barbara, who is the patron saint of artillery, the cadets of the local military academy drape the image of the Virgin in a flag.

The aqueduct is the city’s most important architectural landmark. It had been kept functioning throughout the centuries and preserved in excellent condition. It provided water to Segovia until the mid 19th century. Because of differential decay of stone blocks, water leakage from the upper viaduct, and pollution that caused the granite ashlar masonry to deteriorate and crack, the site was listed in the 2006 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund. Contrary to popular belief, vibrations caused by traffic that used to pass under the arches did not affect the aqueduct due to its great mass. WMF Spain brought together the Ministry of Culture, the regional government of Castilla y León, and other local institutions to collaborate in implementing the project.

Italica

Italica (Spanish: Itálica; north of modern day Santiponce, 9 km NW of Seville, Spain) is a well-preserved Roman city and the birthplace of Roman Emperors Trajan and Hadrian. The modern town of Santiponce overlies part of the pre-Roman Iberian settlement and the Roman city.

Italica was founded in 206 BC by the great Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio (later given the nickname Africanus) to settle his victorious veterans from the Second Punic Wars against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and close enough to the Guadalquivir to control the area.[1] The name Italica reflected the veterans’ Italian origins.
The “old town” or urbs vetus dating from the Republican period lies under the present town of Santiponce. The nearby native and Roman city of Hispalis (Seville) would always remain a larger city, but Italica became an important centre of Roman culture. Italica was later the birthplace of the Roman emperors Trajan and Hadrian (and possibly Theodosius I, and thrived especially under the patronage of Hadrian. He expanded the city northwards as the urbs nova or “new city” and elevated it to the status of colonia as Colonia Aelia Augusta Italica upon its request, even though Hadrian expressed his surprise as it already enjoyed the rights of “Municipium”.
He added temples, including a Trajaneum venerating Trajan, and rebuilt public buildings. Italica’s amphitheatre seated 25,000 spectators, half as many as the Colosseum in Rome and the third largest in the Roman Empire, even though the city’s population at the time is estimated to have been only 8,000, and shows that the local elite demonstrated status that extended far beyond Italica itself through the games and theatrical performances they funded as magistrates and public officials. In the same period was built a new elite quarter with several beautiful (and expensive) houses decorated with splendid mosaics visible today.
However at the end of the 2nd century AD the city began to decline for political and economic reasons, without ever being completed.

Köln Römisch-Germanisches Museum

The Roman-Germanic Museum (RGM, in German: Römisch-Germanisches Museum) is an archaeological museum in Cologne, Germany. It has a large collection of Roman artifacts from the Roman settlement of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, on which modern Cologne is built. The museum protects the original site of a Roman town villa, from which a large Dionysus mosaic remains in its original place in the basement, and the related Roman Road just outside. In this respect the museum is an archaeological site.
The museum also has the task of preserving the Roman cultural heritage of Cologne, and therefore houses an extensive collection of Roman glass from funerals and burials and also exercises archaeological supervision over the construction of the Cologne underground.
Most of the museum’s collection was housed at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne until 1946. In the front of the museum the former northern town gate of Cologne with the inscription CCAA (for Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium) is on display in the building. Section of the Dionysus mosaic (220 through 230) in the Römisch-Germanisches Museum Cologne.

The Römisch-Germanisches Museum, which opened in 1974, is near the Cologne Cathedral on the site of a 3rd-century villa. The villa was discovered in 1941 during the construction of an air-raid shelter. On the floor of the main room of the villa is the renowned Dionysus mosaic. Since the mosaic could not be moved easily, the architects Klaus Renner and Heinz Röcke designed the museum around the mosaic. The inner courtyards of the museum mimic the layout of the ancient villa.
In addition to the Dionysus mosaic, which dates from around A.D. 220/230, there is the reconstructed sepulcher of legionary Poblicius (about A.D. 40). There is also an extensive collection of Roman glassware as well as an array of Roman and medieval jewellery. Many artifacts of everyday life in Roman Cologne — including portraits (e.g., of Roman emperor Augustus and his wife Livia Drusilla), inscriptions, pottery, and architectural fragments — round out the displays.

Xanten

Around 15 BC the Roman camp Castra Vetera was created on the Fürstenberg near modern-day Birten. It was intended as a base for campaigns into Germania and until its destruction during the Revolt of the Batavi in 70 AD it was occupied by 8,000 to 10,000 legionaries, and was the main base of the Classis germanica.

After the destruction of Castra Vetera a second camp became established at the Bislicher Insel, named Castra Vetera II, which became the base camp of Legio VI Victrix. A nearby created settlement, which was inhabited by 10,000 to 15,000 former legionaries and others, was given the rights of a colonia in 110 by the Roman emperor Marcus Ulpius Traianus, who renamed the city Colonia Ulpia Traiana. The colonia was a completely new city with a city wall and other buildings like an amphitheater. For this city the old settlement was destroyed completely. The colonia became the second most important commercial post in the province of Germania Inferior, surpassed only by Colonia Agrippinensis (today’s Cologne). In 122, Vetera II became the camp of Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix, replacing VI Victrix which had moved to Britannia.

In 275 the colonia was almost destroyed by Germanic tribes. Subsequently, in AD 310 in the area of the colonia a new city was established, named Tricensimae (“of the Thirtieth”), which was built on the nine central insula of the former colonia but fortified and more easily defended. At the beginning of the 5th century, assaults by Germanic tribes rapidly increased, with the result that Tricensimae was finally given up.

In 1975, the Archäologischer Park Xanten (Xanten Archaeological Park), a partial reconstruction of the Roman Colonia Ulpia Traiana, was established and opened for tourism. It is built on the site of the Roman town. Today it is one of the most frequently visited parks in Germany. Among other events there, even the popular TV show Wetten dass..? has taken place in the APX. In 2012, the Archaeological Park was expanded to nearly the whole area of the Roman Colonia after the Bundesstraße 57 moved away from the middle of the area.

Villa Borg

Die Römische Villa Borg ist ein archäologisches Freilichtmuseum im Ortsteil Borg der saarländischen Gemeinde Perl im Landkreis Merzig-Wadern. Das Freilichtmuseum besteht aus einer freigelegten und rekonstruierten römischen Villa rustica. Die Anlage wird von der Kulturstiftung Merzig-Wadern getragen. Der Archäologiepark Villa Borg ist eine Station der Straße der Römer.

Nachdem vor nahezu 100 Jahren archäologische Funde in Borg auf eine Villa rustica hindeuteten, wurden 1987 planmäßige Ausgrabungen begonnen. Nach Auswertung und Bewertung der Grabungsbefunde wurde 1994 beschlossen, die gesamte historische Anlage gemäß der Befunde zu rekonstruieren. Insgesamt hat die bauliche Anlage, die sich inkl. Hofareal über eine Fläche von 7,5 ha ausbreitet, drei Flügel. Die ersten Gebäude, die Taverne und das Villenbad, wurden 1997 fertiggestellt. Das Herrenhaus mit der musealen Einrichtung sowie der Innenhof konnten 1999 der Öffentlichkeit übergeben werden. Der dritte Gebäudeflügel mit Wohn- und Wirtschaftsbereichen wurden 2001 fertiggestellt. Das Torhaus wurde ebenfalls wieder aufgebaut.

Das Herrenhaus, dessen Rekonstruktion auch als Regionalmuseum für archäologische Funde genutzt wird, liegt quer zur Mittelachse der Anlage. Es besitzt eine große Empfangshalle mit einer Fläche von 100 m²; die Ausstattung wurde anhand vorgefundener Überreste aus Borg sowie des allgemeinen Wissensstands über derartige römische Gebäude vorgenommen. Das Mobiliar sowie Türen, Fenster und der Warmwasserkessel des Heizraums sind nach antiken Vorlagen gebaut. Das rekonstruierte römische Bad demonstriert unter anderem die Funktion eines Hypokaustums. Das Lokal in der römischen Taverne bietet Speisen nach Rezepten des Apicius an.

Im Jahr 2000 wurde im Zuge des Projekts Gärten ohne Grenzen ein ebenfalls der Öffentlichkeit zugänglicher Garten nach römischem Muster in die Anlage integriert.
Von Juli bis September 2013 wurde eine römische Glaswerkstatt rekonstruiert, die folgend im Oktober 2013 erstmals als ‘Borg Furnace Project’ experimentell betrieben wurde. Forschungsprojekte mit römischem Glas fanden im Juni 2014 und Mai 2015 statt. Weitere Projekte hierzu sind in Planung.

Neues museum

The Neues Museum (“New Museum”) is a museum in Berlin, Germany, located to the north of the Altes Museum (Old Museum) on Museum Island.It was built between 1843 and 1855 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The museum was closed at the beginning of World War II in 1939, and was heavily damaged during the bombing of Berlin. The rebuilding was overseen by the English architect David Chipperfield. The museum officially reopened in October 2009. Exhibits include the Egyptian and Prehistory and Early History collections, as it did before the war. The artifacts it houses include the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti.

Millletus market gate in Pergamon museum

German archaeologist Theodor Wiegand conducted a series of excavations in Miletus from 1899 through 1911. In 1903, the Market Gate of Miletus was excavated and from 1907 to 1908, fragments of the gate were transported to Berlin. Wiegand wrote in his diaries that he gave a presentation using models to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was so impressed that he ordered the gate’s reconstruction at full scale “like a theater backdrop” in the Pergamon Museum.

From 1925 to 1929, the gate was reassembled in the recently expanded museum from over 750 tons of fragments. However, the fragments did not constitute the entirety of the gate, and fill material had to be used in the reconstruction. Reconstruction began by assembling the middle-floor entablature and placing the second story columns on top, followed by reconstructing the pediments. A base and ground floor were then inserted below. Brick and cement reinforced with steel supplemented the few remains of the lower structure. Original column fragments were bored out, leaving a thickness of 3 to 4 centimetres (1.2 to 1.6 in), and filled with steel and mortar. In the 1920s and 1930s, the museum was criticized for portraying its monuments as originals when they consisted significantly of non-original material.

Berlin Museuminsel Altes Museum

The Altes Museum (German for Old Museum) is a museum building on Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. Since restoration work in 2010/11, it houses the Antikensammlung (antiquities collection) of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building was built between 1823 and 1830 by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the neoclassical style to house the Prussian royal family’s art collection. The historic, protected building counts among the most distinguished in neoclassicism and is a high point of Schinkel’s career. Until 1845, it was called the Königliches Museum (Royal Museum).

Greek and Roman Art in Pergamon museum

Zeus Altar in Pergamon museum

The Pergamon Altar is a monumental construction built during the reign of Greek King Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis of the ancient Greek city of Pergamon in Asia Minor. The structure is 35.64 metres wide and 33.4 metres dee
p; the front stairway alone is almost 20 metres wide. The base is decorated with a frieze in high relief showing the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods known as the Gigantomachy. There is a second, smaller and less well-preserved high relief frieze on the inner court walls which surround the actual fire altar on the upper level of the structure at the top of the stairs. In a set of consecutive scenes, it depicts events from the life of Telephus, legendary founder of the city of Pergamon and son of the hero Heracles and Auge, one of Tegean king Aleus’s daughters.

In 1878, the German engineer Carl Humann began official excavations on the acropolis of Pergamon, an effort that lasted until 1886. The excavation was undertaken in order to rescue the altar friezes and expose the foundation of the edifice. Later, other ancient structures on the acropolis were brought to light. Upon negotiating with the Turkish government (a participant in the excavation), it was agreed that all frieze fragments found at the time would become the property of the Berlin museums.

Karl Humann’s 1881 plan of the Pergamon acropolis.
In Berlin, Italian restorers reassembled the panels comprising the frieze from the thousands of fragments that had been recovered. In order to display the result and create a context for it, a new museum was erected in 1901 on Berlin’s Museum Island. Because this first Pergamon Museum proved to be both inadequate and structurally unsound, it was demolished in 1909 and replaced with a much larger museum, which opened in 1930. This new museum is still open to the public on the island. Despite the fact that the new museum was home to a variety of collections beyond the friezes (for example, a famous reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon), the city’s inhabitants decided to name it the Pergamon Museum for the friezes and reconstruction of the west front of the altar. The Pergamon Altar is today the most famous item in the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities, which is on display in the Pergamon Museum and in the Altes Museum, both of which are on Berlin’s Museum Island.

Classical Antiquity

Category Archives: Roman