Midlist Writer: Travel Tuesday: The Roman Theater in Merida, Spain

Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Travel Tuesday: The Roman Theater in Merida, Spain

Welcome to Travel Tuesday, a new feature here on Midlist Writer. I'm active with the #traveltuesday hashtag on Twitter, so I decided to bring it on over to my blog too. Every week I'll be posting one of my travel photos and talking about it.

This shot shows the Roman theater in Mérida, western Spain. In Roman times it was called Emerita Augusta and was capital of the province of Lusitania. The city was founded in 25 BC. There are several well-preserved Roman buildings that make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The theater was one of the first buildings to be erected in the new city and was finished in 15 BC. It seated 6,000 people and, as you can see, its backdrop is in a remarkable state of preservation. It was improved between 333 and 335 AD, a time after the Roman Empire had converted to Christianity. The Church took a dim view of theater plays so its surprising the builders didn't remove earlier statues of pagan deities such as Serapis and Ceres. It looks like some folks in Emerita Augusta still valued the old ways.

1 comment:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...: Over two thousand years old and still standing - impressive!; 20 January 2015 at 12:09

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