International Travel / Spain

Roman ruins: Italica

by liilingon

Italica was a town built around 200 BC, and because no modern city was built over it, it is very well preserved. It was only a 30 minute bus ride from Sevilla’s Plaza de Armas station (short walk from our apartment). Cost of the bus was €8 each way and admission to the ruins was free on Sunday.

Garden wall on the walk to the bus station

It contains the third largest amphitheatre at the time.

First view of the amphitheatre, which could hold up to 25,000 spectators.
Entering the amphitheatre …
Pit where the animals were held during the gladiator shows.
Roads in Italica with ruins of buildings on either side
Italica was the birthplace of the Emperor Trajan – this is a copy of a statue of him. Italica is also the birthplace of the Emperor Hadrian (who started the Hadrian’s Wall in northern England to block the Scots).
Mosaics at the House of the Planetarium
Júpiter / Jupiter
Saturno / Saturn
El Sol / The Sun
Mosaics at the House of Neptune. This is in a building housing baths – both warm and cold pools existed. We missed seeing the aqueduct that brought water in from springs and rivers to be stored in a cistern that held 900,000 litres of water.
A noble’s house with courtyard
Ongoing restorations
Under the city was a sewer system that still exists. There are grates covering them today. What did the kids find?
They checked each other out for a very long time!
The Baths
Whole area for businesses – this is the bakery, with ovens.
Felix with the bust of Fortuna
Colourful flowers to end our tour – no idea what this is, but it looks like a bottlebrush!

As we were finishing up, Lara mentioned that she had learnt about the Romans last year in school, but that she learnt way more during our 3 hour stay at Italica. She was most diligent about reading the descriptions at each exhibit.

Total walking distance at the ruins: 7.4 km

1 comments on “Roman ruins: Italica”

  1. The owl mosaic looks a lot like the owl the kids saw below the grate.Thanks for sharing. I didn’t know Hadrian was from Spain, but then I was never that involved I guess. Thanks again. May the adventures continue. XO

    Reply

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