Cryptoporticus on calle Almendralejo
A vaulted Roman structure preserved at the back of a plot on calle Almendralejo, in the area of the Provincial Imperial Cult Complex (formerly called the Provincial Forum). It is a barrel vault of which some eight metres can be seen, of undetermined height, now built into the ground floors of two buildings.
- Type
- Criptopórtico / cisterna romana
- Preservation
- Ruined
- Protection
- Listed · RI-53-0000148
- Listed
- 08/02/1973
- Coordinates
- 38.91890, -6.34630
- Photographs
- 0
What it is and what is left
Some studies described it as a cistern, but its features suggest it belongs rather to a cryptoporticus of the provincial imperial cult complex: vaulted galleries of this kind served to level the terraces on which monumental squares were raised and to house service rooms. The date is early imperial Roman, consistent with the building of the complex under Tiberius.
Its condition varies and the municipal catalogue notes the need to monitor the remains to prevent damage, since they are embedded in buildings in use. Its architectural importance is high precisely because the vault survives intact. 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.
1 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 →Not every archaeologist accepts that it was a cryptoporticus: some argue that this half-underground gallery in the forum precinct was, more prosaically, a public store where the colony kept its goods.
Muy Interesante — El foro de Mérida, corazón de la ciudadBelow 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.