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Roman architecture for beginners

jungleboy

Spirit of the Camino (Nick)
Time of past OR future Camino
Some in the past; more in the future!
This is the latest thread in the 'architecture for beginners' series begun by @C clearly. Previous threads are on Romanesque, Visigothic/pre-Romanesque and Gothic architecture.

Those three threads mostly focused on a single building type: churches. Roman remains cover many different public and private buildings and that makes this a more complicated topic, but hopefully an enjoyable one to discuss.



To get us started, today I published an article titled Best Roman Sites on the Camino de Santiago. Here's the introduction:

Pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago tread in the very footsteps of the Roman Empire, traversing Roman roads and Roman bridges as they make their way to Santiago de Compostela. Roman milestones and castra (fortified settlements) are also found along the camino and serve as constant reminders of Rome’s expanse and organisational capacity.

These most basic aspects of Roman infrastructure don’t reveal the true grandeur of the empire, however, which is to be found in theatres, amphitheatres, aqueducts, temples and other monumental works of architecture. Fortunately, these more spectacular vestiges of the Roman world are also within reach of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago.

Here are two of these monumental Roman buildings that can be found on the camino.

Roman Theatre at Mérida (VdlP/Mozárabe):

Mérida Theatre.jpg

The Roman aqueduct at Segovia (Camino de Madrid):

Aqueduct Segovia Night.jpg

If you're interested in seeing more photos, I have a dedicated Roman Empire album on Flickr.



Some Features of Roman Architecture

Here are just a few features of Roman architecture. There are many more, of course.
  • Roman temples, such as those seen at Mérida and Córdoba on the camino, show a combination of Greek and Etruscan influences. Typical Roman temples tended to be rectangular with a raised platform, façade orientation and columns all the way around.
  • Roman mastery of concrete (which took centuries) was pivotal in allowing for greater structures and larger interior spaces. Examples of this include the concrete dome of the Pantheon in Rome, and the vaulting of Trajan's Market in Rome.
  • Arches are a hallmark of Roman architecture, used in aqueducts, amphitheatres and theatres (e.g. the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome). Filled-in arches were also used for weight distribution in buildings like the Pantheon.


Recommended Resources

The History of Rome - a phenomenal podcast by Mike Duncan offering a narrative history of the Roman Empire from the founding of the city of Rome in 753 BC to the traditional end date of the empire in AD 476.

Roman Architecture - an excellent free course by Yale/Coursera that gives an introduction to Roman architecture and architectural techniques and developments.

Following Hadrian - a great project by Carole Raddato following in the footsteps of the Roman emperor Hadrian. She has visited many, many Roman archeological sites and has a vast photo library.



What are the most impressive Roman sites you've seen on the camino? Off the camino? What are the Roman sites you would most like to see? Discuss all things Roman architecture here!
 
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Thanks for the beautifully organized introductory post. This should be a fascinating thread.

In addition to information about Roman architecture along the routes that we walk, I think some of us would also like to learn about the roads themselves. While they might not count as architecture, it's often a thrill to know that we're walking along or near to roads that the Romans paved and maintained.

EDITED TO ADD:
See post #10 below for links to a series of documentaries on Roman engineering by RTVE. They're all in Spanish, but the pace is relatively slow and the graphics make things quite clear, even when I can't follow exactly what the narrator is saying.
 
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Thanks, @jungleboy, looking forward to this discussion. When I think of Roman, I think of thermal baths and mosaics, so I would be happy to broaden my understanding.

I will stick to Roman sites on the caminos, though I think your article hit the main ones. Beautiful pictures and great text, as always!

On the Invierno, Las Médulas is a UNESCO world heritage site, a Roman gold mine where they channeled water through the mountains to make them explode and disgorge the gold. Very good museum and just an amazing yet eerie site to walk around. And you can even walk through one of the water tunnels

23B1A3CD-D7F8-45DA-BB79-34F511937224.jpeg

On the Lana planning thread, we learned that there is a huge, really huge Roman villa that is being excavated outside Cuenca near the town of Noheda.Comes complete with litigation over the amount of money due the landowner.

One of the articles, with pictures, is this one:


Arco de Cáparra on the Vdlp is a pretty iconic place.

4DDBAAEF-87E1-4100-9CCA-433C76B73A31.jpeg

And then there are the many miliarios, the mile markers that you see a lot on the Vdlp. There are also quite a few up in Peneda Geres, which is on the Geira e dos Arrieiros (I‘ve not walked it, just visited them as a tourist).

CDA5BECB-56C2-43CB-B814-5539172ADDFC.jpeg70B93FE0-D3C0-4125-840D-FC2EB819A147.jpeg

I agree with @Raggy about some discussion of the Roman roads. On the way out of Fuenterroble (or is it near the parish church in Fuenterroble?) there are several information boards that explain the many layers and the pretty astonishing engineering that went into building those roads. It wasn’t just a bunch of square stones laid nicely all over the Iberian peninsula. For today’s pilgrim, I think that a lot of the luster wears off after your first few times picking your way gingerly over what used to be engineering marvels, but are often now just shots of pain into your feet.
 
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Thank you @Raggy and @peregrina2000! That Roman gold mine sounds great, hopefully I will be able to visit later this year if my proposed autumn Invierno is possible.

And I still find Roman roads fascinating after all these years! On the CP last September, there was a stretch of Roman road between Redondela and Pontevedra that included chariot ruts. Although I used to work in an 'office' that had these ruts (the Roman Forum) and have seen them elsewhere (notably on the Via delle Gallie in Aosta), this was the first time I had seen them on camino. So that was cool!

50426005213_ec0e0a17cb_c.jpg
 
I was trying to remember all that I had read about how the Romans built those roads, and there is a very clear, short and to the point description of the roads as well as other things like bridges, aqueducts, mills.



Here’s the relevant paragraph from that site

Roman roads were built by first setting the curb stones, digging a long pit between them that was the entire width of the road, and then covering it with rocks or gravel. The layer of gravel was compacted and a layer of finer gravel was added. The road was then paved with large polygonal rock slabs. Because of the layer of gravel below, Roman roads were able to resist freezing and floods and required relatively little maintenance. Furthermore, the road surface had slight inclinations, so that rainwater could flow to the curbs on either side.
 
On the Invierno, Las Médulas is a UNESCO world heritage site, a Roman gold mine
Don't forget the Camino Frances - Astorga has Roman ruins on display. There's a connection between this thread and the thread about the Camino Invierno where we have just walked past the Roman gold mines at Las Médulas. Regarding Astorga, Wikipedia says:
  • The Roman city was founded in 14 BC, being entitled by Emperor Octavian as Asturica Augusta now known as Astorga. It became an important administrative and military centre.
  • The walls of the town were built at the time of Ancient Rome. In 35 AD as mining plans developed, this Roman Hispania castra was redesigned and built with the help of the army, into a city. A provincial capital, and the meeting-place of four military roads. Vía de la Plata (Silver Way) or Ruta de la Plata (Silver Route) is an ancient commercial and pilgrimage path that connects Astorga to Mérida. It was conceived and built as a trade route for the exploitation of gold.
  • The Roman walls were rebuilt by Bishop Nuño around 1242 and they underwent several repairs during the Middle Ages. The city had thermal baths with hot, warm, cold water systems, sauna's and two main sewer system still in use today. Ruins of Roman baths are still visible today.

 
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To rejuvenate this thread, maybe it would be helpful to take Roman buildings one category at a time.

Let's start with temples. As mentioned above, Roman temple architecture was influenced by earlier Greek and Etruscan buildings. IIRC Greek elements in Roman temples included having columns all the way around and having a raised platform (think of the Parthenon in Athens), while the main Etruscan element was having a façade orientation (that is, an obvious 'front' of the temple, with steps leading up to it). Combining these elements gave us the typical square/rectangular Roman temple design.

(Of course, not all Roman temples looked the same - three obvious examples of round temples in Rome are the Pantheon, the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum and the round temple on the banks of the Tiber, but these were exceptions to the standard template.)

Here are two typical Roman temples on the camino:

The Temple of Diana in Mérida on the VdlP/Mozárabe:

16459939363_c9f98749dc_c 2.jpg

Another Temple of Diana - at Évora, Portugal (on the Caminho do Este):

16461690073_90b0f3bbe2_c 2.jpg

Not on a camino, but one of the best preserved standard Roman temples is in Nîmes, France, and is known as the Maison Carée. This gives us a great idea of how these temples looked and we can of course see how similar it is to neoclassical buildings constructed in the last couple of hundred years.

728245788_cf2726a1ed_c 2.jpg

In all three of these examples we can see the Roman preference for the Corinthian order of column capitals (rather than Doric or Ionic).
 
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I thought of a few more on caminos.

This one in Vic on the Catalán.
39E3B6BB-F7CC-4319-B5FA-1F53C4DF8995.jpeg

This one in Córdoba on the Mozárabe.

BDE6F4C0-7B7E-4354-89D7-DFA4EC567126.jpeg


And this, which is a mausoleum, so maybe not quite fitting your category, in Fábara on the Ebro. This one was quite cool to visit. Drop off your passport and get the keys in the bar. Walk a few kms out of town and use the first key to unlock the gate and the second key to unlock the entrance to the mausoleum and climb around in the dirt.

297E96A3-A63C-4436-9E47-09747DE56C34.jpeg3ECBBEA5-918A-4CBF-99A8-E53C0CC895C9.jpeg
 
@jungleboy, thanks for your introduction into the subject.
Just let me give an additional recommendation: If you´re on the VdlP and come to Mérida, after a walk around the roman sites take some hours to visit the National Museum of Roman Art. They put it all together: Architecture, Art, Technic and every day life in "Emerita Augusta".
I found it worth an off-day.

IMG_4886.JPG

--
Ultreia
 
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I would like to add a resource - a series of documentaries on Roman engineering by RTVE. They're all in Spanish, but the pace is relatively slow and the graphics make things quite clear, even when I can't follow exactly what the narrator is saying.

Perhaps I should copy and paste these links into my post at the top of the thread rather than having them stuck down here in the discussion about temples?

Mines:

Roads:

Aqueducts:

Cities (part 1):

Cities (part 2 - seeds of the empire):

The interactivity on this site is a little unorthodox (at least it seems quirky to me), but there is some great content to explore - 360 degree views and interactive videos of different locations.
 
To rejuvenate this thread, maybe it would be helpful to take Roman buildings one category at a time.

Let's start with temples. As mentioned above, Roman temple architecture was influenced by earlier Greek and Etruscan buildings. IIRC Greek elements in Roman temples included having columns all the way around and having a raised platform (think of the Parthenon in Athens), while the main Etruscan element was having a façade orientation (that is, an obvious 'front' of the temple, with steps leading up to it). Combining these elements gave us the typical square/rectangular Roman temple design.

(Of course, not all Roman temples looked the same - three obvious examples of round temples in Rome are the Pantheon, the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum and the round temple on the banks of the Tiber, but these were exceptions to the standard template.)

Here are two typical Roman temples on the camino:

The Temple of Diana in Mérida on the VdlP/Mozárabe:

View attachment 92103

Another Temple of Diana - at Évora, Portugal (on the Caminho do Este):

View attachment 92104

Not on a camino, but one of the best preserved standard Roman temples is in Nîmes, France, and is known as the Maison Carée. This gives us a great idea of how these temples looked and we can of course see how similar it is to neoclassical buildings constructed in the last couple of hundred years.

View attachment 92105

In all three of these examples we can see the Roman preference for the Corinthian order of column capitals (rather than Doric or Ionic).
I want to see it with my own eyes
 
I would like to add a resource - a series of documentaries on Roman engineering by RTVE. They're all in Spanish, but the pace is relatively slow and the graphics make things quite clear, even when I can't follow exactly what the narrator is saying.

Perhaps I should copy and paste these links into my post at the top of the thread rather than having them stuck down here in the discussion about temples?

Mines:
If, by any chance, you have an interest in Roman Spain and missed this posting by @Raggy (like I did) back in January, you'll be delighted that you have found it now. The first one we watched, the one on Roman mines, is fascinating. It covers mines all over Spain and Portugal, so no matter which camino you are walking, you will find something of interest. The narrator is enthusiastic, the graphics are intriguing, and you can add subtitles in Spanish to help you understand what is being said. The intricacies of the Roman mining techniques are engaging - linked noria wheels to remove the water from subterranean galleries; animal skins to catch the fine particles of gold; water-powered pistons to break up ores... - all with great reconstructions that bring the topic alive. I'm planning to watch all five videos. Thank you for posting this great resource, Raggy!
 
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If, by any chance, you have an interest in Roman Spain and missed this posting by @Raggy (like I did) back in January, you'll be delighted that you have found it now.
Amen, @islandwalker - I am sorry to have somehow missed this thread when it was fresh and active but am totally thrilled to find it now!

To go back to roads: On the Via de Bayona, a substantial part of the last stage into Burgos is next to a Roman road; there are interpretive signs to help you understand what you are seeing and walking on. (The miliarios is atmospheric rather than original. )
20190529_085939 - Copy.webp 20190529_084003 - Copy.jpg20190529_090314 - Copy.jpg
 
There are a couple of excellent examples of early Roman villas near Moratinos. The lower portions of the walls and the ceramic tiles of La Olmeda have been preserved in a fine museum.
 
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@pepi, feel free to start the 'Modern Architecture for Beginners' thread. Or maybe one of the mods can create it starting with the two posts directly above this one.
 
Top 5 Roman Sites in Southern Spain

(Published this week and written by the indefatigable Carole Raddato of Following Hadrian.)
Thanks! There a lot of nice info in there. I'm intrigued by Munigua - especially since it can only be reached by a dirt track. Here's a gps track from wikiloc for anyone interested. It looks like a stunning site.
 
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Merida was great and earlier on Via de la Plata , Santiponce, right outside Seville, let me meet the historic gold I was not aware of when I started. I would say that VdlP was great on Roman history.
The intruders work in Las Medulas on Camino de Invierno was may be a sight, but more like an attack on the land. I hope to go back to VdlP to have more time for the Roman sights.
 
I would like to add a resource - a series of documentaries on Roman engineering by RTVE. They're all in Spanish, but the pace is relatively slow and the graphics make things quite clear, even when I can't follow exactly what the narrator is saying.

Perhaps I should copy and paste these links into my post at the top of the thread rather than having them stuck down here in the discussion about temples?

Mines:

Roads:

Aqueducts:

Cities (part 1):

Cities (part 2 - seeds of the empire):

The interactivity on this site is a little unorthodox (at least it seems quirky to me), but there is some great content to explore - 360 degree views and interactive videos of different locations.
I watched all of them and it was a) fascinating, and b) filled my heart with joy at the combination of ingenuity and logic and c) reminded me that our current struggles are just part of a very long arc... not new to the world.
 
There is an interesting article in El País today about the Roman remains in Segovia.

More than an aqueduct: Spain’s Segovia digs into its Roman past

The city council is launching a project to excavate and exhibit the remains of an ancient forum, whose dimensions indicate the presence of a ruling elite...

 
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For those of you who couldn't access this marvelous series when it originally aired on RTVE (as discussed in post #10 of this thread), all six programs of the Ingeniera Romana series are now available on YouTube. I'm hoping that means that they are available in all countries, but I have no way of knowing if that is the case. I rewatched Los Aqueductos Part I this evening and was just as fascinated as I was the first time around. Every minute of the six programs is full of demonstrations that clearly explain the features we see as we walk through France and Spain. The presenter invites us to imagine, for example, the engineering precision required to build a 52 km canal that had neither too slight a slope (leading to low flow that would cause an accumulation of sediments to obstruct the channel) nor too steep a slope (leading to water flowing at an aggressive speed that would erode the channel). The range for an acceptable slope: no less than ten centimeters per kilometer, and no more than 50 - wow!

The topics covered are Aqueducts, parts I and II; Cities, parts I and II; Mines; and Roads. All programs are about an hour long.

The presenter uses clear, easy-to-understand Spanish, and there are Spanish subtitles available. If you would like to have English subtitles as well, you can get them (on Chrome only) by installing the app Language Reactor on your computer. After you install the app, when you open a YouTube or Netflix video in Chrome, you will have the option of getting the subtitles in English as well as Spanish (or another language). You can also slow the speed down to give you a better chance at understanding the Spanish.

Here's a screen shot of what the video will look like if you have Language Reactor installed (see pink icon at bottom of screen):

Screen Shot 2022-12-28 at 7.44.40 PM.png Screen Shot 2022-12-28 at 7.40.06 PM.png
 
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