Casa del Anfiteatro
A suburban archaeological complex of Augusta Emerita (Mérida), outside the walls on plaza de Margarita Xirgu, next to the amphitheatre. The site brings together the remains of two Roman houses — the «Casa de la Torre del Agua» and the one properly called the «Casa del Anfiteatro» — a stretch of the San Lázaro aqueduct conduit, a water settling tower, an extensive burial area with a 2nd-century mausoleum, and a section of the colonial town wall.
- Type
- Villa
- Preservation
- Ruined
- Protection
- Listed · RI-55-0000222
- Listed
- 19/11/1991
- Coordinates
- 38.91759, -6.33784
- Photographs
- 12
What it is and what is left
The Casa del Anfiteatro is the largest suburban house recorded in Mérida. Built in the late 1st century AD, it was occupied until the 3rd century, when it was probably adapted as a large inn or commercial establishment tied to the shows at the amphitheatre. In the early 4th century it was abandoned and a cemetery was laid out over its ruins. It preserves almost 700 m² of high-quality polychrome mosaics, among them the Vintage Mosaic — with scenes of picking and treading grapes, and a figure of Venus with Cupid — and the Mosaic of the Fishes, which decorated the main triclinium. The mausoleum preserved a marble lintel with an allegory of the city's two rivers, the Anas (Guadiana) and the Barraeca (Albarregas).
Recent excavation (2023) revealed a huge bath complex in excellent condition, with the apodyterium intact. Run by the Consorcio de la Ciudad Monumental de Mérida; reopened to the public in 2020.
Where the finds are
The mosaic floors of the house are preserved where they were laid and are the main draw of the visit, among them the grape-treaders mosaic and the mosaic of the fishes.
What each period left here
It reads downwards: each band is a period with fabric in this site, newest first, deepest last.
7 facts
8 photographs
Roman
This site has fabric from this period. Mérida has 57 more sites built in the same layer.
See the whole layer →In the vintage mosaic the three grape-treaders hold on to each other in what looks like a dance step, with the must running into three vessels: a scene of work told as a party.
Consorcio Ciudad Monumental de MéridaThe fishes in the other mosaic are not generic decoration: each medallion carries a recognisable species — sea bream, hake, grouper, sole, conger — and the Romans believed fish protected the house.
Consorcio Ciudad Monumental de MéridaIn August 2023 an almost intact Roman iron grille turned up here, from a window of the changing room in the house's baths: it kept anyone from getting in through the opening. A surviving Roman iron grille is extremely rare, and it is not the first from this same house: a similar one came out in the 1962-1963 season.
El Español — Hallazgo excepcional en Mérida: una reja de hierro intactaInside is the Mausoleum of the Lintel of the Rivers, excavated in 1994: a funerary monument of the second half of the 3rd century, raised just as the house was being abandoned.
MNAR — Dintel de los RíosThe lintel that gives it its name is a piece of marble 2.16 m long weighing a tonne, with Mérida's two rivers shown as human figures with their Roman names: the Ana (Guadiana) and the Barraeca (Albarregas). It has become one of the symbols of the city.
MNAR — Dintel de los RíosThanks to that stone we know whose tomb it was: it was dedicated to Gaius Julius Successianus, priest of the imperial cult, by his freedman Exsuperantius. A former slave paying for his former master's mausoleum.
MNAR — Dintel de los RíosThe original lintel is in the National Museum of Roman Art, and the mausoleum that housed it was restored by the Consorcio in 2023.
COPE — Mérida restaura su mausoleo del Dintel de los Ríos
Below the deepest layer of each site is the ground itself: what has not been excavated yet, or what left nothing built. The catalogue only claims what is documented.
A short walk from here
Straight-line distances, worked out from the coordinates of each site.
Where this page comes from
- Casa del Anfiteatro | Consorcio Ciudad Monumental de Mérida consorciomerida.org