Forum of Augusta Emerita

The forum was presided over by the so-called Temple of Diana, a hexastyle peripteral temple built in granite, standing on a podium 3.25 m high and measuring 32.80 × 21.90 m. Although popularly known as the Temple of Diana, it was dedicated to the imperial cult. The sacred precinct (temenos) was a closed rectangular space with two ritual pools flanking the temple. The complex was completed by porticoes, a basilica, baths and, on its western wing, a half-underground gallery (a cryptoporticus or public store).

The complex expanded greatly eastwards in the Flavian period (second half of the 1st century AD). What you visit on the ground today is above all the corner of the Forum Portico, of Julio-Claudian date, on calle Sagasta, behind the Temple of Diana: Corinthian columns carrying an attic with clipei, medallions alternating heads of Jupiter Ammon and Medusa with caryatids bearing kraters, in imitation of the Forum of Augustus in Rome. The closing wall preserves the great niches that held statues of the imperial family and of gods and myths tied to the house of Augustus: a programme of dynastic propaganda, not mere decoration. Worth knowing: the sculptural elements installed on the monument are reproductions; the originals are in the National Museum of Roman Art. The forum's public baths were also recorded in the same space. Free to see from the street, with no enclosure or opening hours.

It forms part of the Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.