Spain Guide
Extremadura
The Puente Romano and Alcazaba
Opening time: Alcazaba and Morerías daily: summer 9.30am–1.45pm & 5–7.15pm; winter 4–6.15pm
Price: Alcazaba and Morerías €4 each; combined multi-day ticket to all Mérida's Roman sites €10
The obvious point to begin a tour of Mérida's Roman sites is the magnificent Puente Romano, the bridge across the islet-strewn Río Guadiana. Sixty arches long – the seven in the middle are fifteenth-century replacements – it was still in use until the early 1990s, when the new Puente de Lusitania was constructed.
Defence of the old bridge was provided by a vast Alcazaba, built by the Moors to replace a Roman construction. The interior is a rather barren archeological site, although in the middle there's an aljibe to which you can descend by either of a pair of staircases.
Northeast of the Alcazaba, past the airy sixteenth-century Plaza de España, the heart of the modern town, is the so-called Templo de Diana, adapted into a Renaissance mansion, and farther along are remains of the Foro, the heart of the Roman city. West of the plaza, the great Arco Trajano, once wrongly believed to be a triumphal arch, was in fact a marble-clad granite monumental gate to the forum. Heading to the river from here you'll also discover the Morerías archeological site (€4) along c/Morerías, where you can watch the digging and preservation of houses and factories from Roman through Visigoth to Moorish times – particularly of interest are the well-preserved Roman mosaics.