Cáparra
Cáparra ( Latin Capara or Capera ) is an ancient Roman city in the province of Lusitania in what is now the Spanish municipality of Oliva de Plasencia in the province of Cáceres in the autonomous region of Extremadura . The Tetrapylon , located in the center of the ancient city, has been a protected architectural monument ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) since 1931 .
location
The Roman city is located about 500 m south of the Río Ambroz on the so-called "Silver Road" ( Via de la Plata ), which led from Seville ( Hispalis ) via Mérida ( Emerita Augusta ) and Salamanca ( Helmantica ) to Astorga ( Asturica Augusta ); a branch ran from Idanha-a-Velha ( Egitania ) in present-day Portugal via Coria ( Caurium ) to Talavera la Vieja ( Augustobriga ). Today, Plasencia, 37 km (driving distance) away, is the closest major city.
history
Already for the time of Agrippa it is mentioned as caperenses among the taxable communities ( civitas stipendiaria) and under Emperor Nero a Roman milestone ( miliarium ) was set here in 58 AD . The appointment to the Municipium Flavium Caparense goes back to the year 74 and the Flavian Emperor Vespasian . The city experienced a further expansion and its heyday in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Claudius Ptolemy (approx. 100–170) mentions it as belonging to the former settlement area of the Vettons .
Roman city
The city took up at least 15 or 16 hectares; it was - possibly not until the 3rd century - surrounded by a city wall that excluded some settlement areas. A thermal bath was uncovered near the Tetrapylon , the center of the city at the intersection of the two main axes Cardo and Decumanus . The foundations of an amphitheater were found in the southeast of the complex outside the former wall ring.
Tetrapylon
The monument, which is almost square in plan and currently about ten meters high, carried a superstructure, of which only the opus caementitium core has survived; the original height of the structure is estimated at around 13.50 meters. The groin vault , which is supported by narrow pylons , consists of canted wedge stones. The north-east and south-west facades are the main facades, the rectangular pedestals in front of which presumably carried equestrian statues . Half-columns on Attic bases are attached to the outer edges . The right pedestal on the southwest side bore an inscription that names the donor M. Fidius Macer . The building was in one axis with the entrance to a square (possibly the forum ) in the center of the city.
Roman bridge
About 500 m north of the tetrapylon, a two-arched stone bridge with two further side passages leads over the Río Ambroz , which - due to the use of large and precisely hewn stones - is often referred to as the " Roman bridge " ( puente romano ), but which has been in the course of its long history has been repeatedly restored and modified.
literature
- Walter Trillmich , Annette Nünnerich-Asmus (Ed.): Hispania Antiqua - Monuments of the Roman Age. von Zabern, Mainz 1993, ISBN 3-8053-1547-3 , pp. 316-318 and plate 91.
Web links
- Tetrapylon in the Arachne archaeological database
- Cáparra, history + inscriptions
- Cáparra Roman Bridge - photo
- Roman civil engineering in Spain; Bridge of Cáparra - photos, sectional drawings + information (Spanish)
Remarks
Coordinates: 40 ° 9 ′ 57 ″ N , 6 ° 6 ′ 2 ″ W