Castellum aquae at Cerro del Calvario
A monumental Roman structure occupying the highest part of the so-called Cerro del Calvario, on calle Calvario, north of the old town of Mérida. It is rectangular in plan with two U-shaped projections and built of concrete faced with very large granite ashlars; on the upper part and at several points on the elevations, remains of marble slabs survive, proof that it was partly clad in that material, which speaks of a building of some display.
- Type
- Castellum aquae (torre de agua)
- Preservation
- Ruined
- Protection
- Listed · RI-53-0000148
- Listed
- 08/02/1973
- Coordinates
- 38.92110, -6.34968
- Photographs
- 0
What it is and what is left
It has traditionally been read as part of a castellum aquae, the distribution tower where the Los Milagros aqueduct would have ended in order to share out water across the city: the aqueduct dies barely 200 m to the north-east, which makes the idea attractive. The municipal catalogue itself, however, warns that the shape of the building and its position make that hard to sustain, so its function remains open. The date is early imperial Roman.
It survives in part, on a fenced plot with no permanent access, and the catalogue calls for a programme of presentation to match the scale of the remains. Part of the Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida, World Heritage (UNESCO, 1993). Location approximate.
What each period left here
It reads downwards: each band is a period with fabric in this site, newest first, deepest last.
0 facts
0 photographs
Roman
This site has fabric from this period. Mérida has 57 more sites built in the same layer.
See the whole layer →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.