«In Parejos crossing we discovered that the Forum was much more important»

In 2006, part of the portico of the Roman Forum of Mérida, built in the mid-1st century in the image and likeness of the one in Rome, was discovered under the old blacksmith shop on Calle Baños on the corner with Traverse de Parejos.

The excavation began in 2006 but was closed very soon –in 2007– due to disagreement with the owners of the site.

The archaeologists did not return until thirteen years later; in February 2020. But the health crisis broke out and it was paralyzed. They resumed after confinement and last year they finally concluded an excavation in which there were many expectations.

The intention of the Consortium now is to make it visitable and integrate it into the building that the owners are going to erect on the site. A kind of basement with Roman remains on a modern enclosure that visitors can access.

The conference room of the Consortium was filled on Wednesday afternoon to listen to the conclusions of the archaeologist Rocío Ayerbe, who together with Félix Palma and Teresa Barrientos wrote a monograph on the remains of this site.

The work carried out by Parejos, explains the archaeologist, was decisive in defining much better the configuration of the colony’s Forum. Until then, the Forum was confined to the Temple of Diana and to the corner of Sagasta Street.

The investigation by Rocío Ayerbe, Teresa Barrientos and Félix Palma compiled all the information that affected this block by reviewing previous excavations and drew a clear conclusion: «We realized that the Forum was much more complex and more important than could be intuited “, Explain.

The historical evolution starts from the head where the Temple of Diana was located. Then two public enclosures were built; one on Viñeros street and another under what is now the Alcazaba Cultural Center. In the time of Emperor Tiberius, a monumental sacral enclosure called the Provincial Forum was erected in the colony, for an imperial cult parallel to that of Concordia in Rome.

From the second half of the first century the colony undergoes a new urban modification. A project is executed that transforms the city almost completely. “It would begin in the year 69, with Vespasiano”, as explained by Ayerbe. The intervention in the Parejos crossing, sentence, has been fruitful and complex, with a power of between five and five and a half meters. “Not only does it allow us to build the history of that site, but also of Mérida completely.” They have been documented in the excavation from domestic constructions prior to the urban expansion to the imposing walls of the public enclosure of the southwest corner that was built later, as part of the Forum.

The architect of the building that is going to be erected now in Parejos crossing collaborates with the Consortium to definitively adapt these remains that were discovered thirteen years ago and integrate them into the use that the new construction will have. Archaeologist Rocío Ayerbe already explained to the Consortium that these are remains of great interest due to their walls over five meters high.