House of the Amphitheatre

Plaza Margarita Xirgú, s/n

This archaeological area is found outside the Augusta Emerita walls where you could find houses as well as funeral and industrial spaces. At the moment it is not possible to visit them because they are being restored. There are two houses: the House of the Water tower, from the 1st century BC, and the House of the Amphitheatre which lasted longer, from the end of the 3rd century BC until the beginning of the 5th AC.

Once you enter this site, the first thing you see is a small rectangular building where the water coming from the hydraulic piping of Saint Lazarus was purified, which we can also see. Not much remains of the House of the Water Tower because it was destroyed by a stream. This stream was saved by the hydraulic piping of Saint Lazarus by an arch whose granite keystone is decorated with a lion’s head.

The House of the Amphitheatre is a large domestic complex. Part of it was built around a porticoed, trapezoidal courtyard with a garden in the centre where you can also find a well and a fountain. One of the rooms that come out onto this courtyard, possibly a dining room or triclinium, has got a mosaic floor. In its central emblem you can see realistic scenes of the grape harvest and mashing of the grapes as well as a Venus accompanied by a cupid. On the northwest side of this part of the house you can find the kitchen and a thermae complex.

Towards the southeast there is another group of rooms. One of them, which is considerably big, was probably a dining room and has a mosaic floor which shows a large and realistic collection of marine fauna. In the area nearest to the Amphitheatre, we can see the remains of the mausoleum of Gaius Julius Succesianus from the 2nd century but which was modified during the following centuries. Here we found a lintel with a humanised representation of the two rivers that flanked the city: the Anas (Guadiana) and the Barraecca (Albarregas).

This archaeological area is found outside the Augusta Emerita walls where you could find houses as well as funeral and industrial spaces. At the moment it is not possible to visit them because they are being restored. There are two houses: the House of the Water tower, from the 1st century BC, and the House of the Amphitheatre which lasted longer, from the end of the 3rd century BC until the beginning of the 5th AC.

Once you enter this site, the first thing you see is a small rectangular building where the water coming from the hydraulic piping of Saint Lazarus was purified, which we can also see. Not much remains of the House of the Water Tower because it was destroyed by a stream. This stream was saved by the hydraulic piping of Saint Lazarus by an arch whose granite keystone is decorated with a lion’s head.

The House of the Amphitheatre is a large domestic complex. Part of it was built around a porticoed, trapezoidal courtyard with a garden in the centre where you can also find a well and a fountain. One of the rooms that come out onto this courtyard, possibly a dining room or triclinium, has got a mosaic floor. In its central emblem you can see realistic scenes of the grape harvest and mashing of the grapes as well as a Venus accompanied by a cupid. On the northwest side of this part of the house you can find the kitchen and a thermae complex.

Towards the southeast there is another group of rooms. One of them, which is considerably big, was probably a dining room and has a mosaic floor which shows a large and realistic collection of marine fauna. In the area nearest to the Amphitheatre, we can see the remains of the mausoleum of Gaius Julius Succesianus from the 2nd century but which was modified during the following centuries. Here we found a lintel with a humanised representation of the two rivers that flanked the city: the Anas (Guadiana) and the Barraecca (Albarregas).

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