The Sepulchral way of the Plaça de la Villa de Madrid is a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

dating from the 1st to the 3rd century AD, located in the Plaça de la Villa de Madrid and its surroundings in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. The site lies below the current level of the square, but is visible from the street due to the urban design. It is one of the various heritage sites managed by the Museum of the History of Barcelona. Between the 1st and 3rd centuries, Roman law prohibited burials inside the city, so the necropolises of were located outside the city walls, along the roads that led out of the city. In this context, the necropolis in the Plaça de la Villa de Madrid is considered to be a secondary cemetery, far from the walls, used for the burial of the middle and lower classes, including

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

and

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

. However, it is the best preserved and most studied necropolis of this period in Barcelona, as only scattered remains have been found in other necropolises, mostly in the form of reused funerary monuments that were incorporated into the Roman expansion of the city in the 4th century. The main feature of the necropolis is a five-metre wide road, the remains of which were discovered between the streets of Portaferrissa and Santa Ana. This road left the city through the south-west gate (in the direction of what is now Boqueria street) and led to the Corts or

Sarrià Sarria is a municipality in the province of Lugo, Galicia, Spain. Sarria or Sarrià may also refer to: *Sarrià, Barcelona, a neighbourhood in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain **Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, the Barcelona district containing Sarrià **Sarrià ...

areas. The tombs, arranged in rows but not in any regular order, are flanked on the outside by a wall. A total of 85 burials of different types have been identified: six monolithic ', six

altars An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in Christian ...

, one

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

, two inscribed slabs, 33 burial mounds (two conical and the rest square or masonry ''cupae''), 17 burials protected by tiles or ''

amphorae An amphora (; ; English ) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land ...

'' and 20 burials without any protection. At present, three additional monolithic ''cupae'' can be seen in the burial path, brought from the excavations of the Roman wall in the 1950s to replace damaged original masonry cupae in their original positions. After the necropolis ceased to be used, it was gradually buried by the

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

deposits of the

Collserola The Serra de Collserola (), or simply Collserola, is a mountain range between the rivers Besòs and Llobregat. It is part of the Catalan Coastal Range. These mountains separate Barcelona from the Vallès plain and their tallest peak is the Ti ...

streams, which prevented the stones from being reused as building materials. The site was rediscovered in 1956 during the groundwork for the building that now occupies the south-east side of the square, and a first excavation campaign was carried out, followed by another in 1959. Further excavations took place between 2000 and 2003, coinciding with the renovation of the square, and the site was officially opened to the public as a museum in 2008. The nature of this site lies in the fact that the tombs have been found in their original context, since the vast majority of Roman burials known to us have only reused stone elements from other buildings or isolated tombs. For example, many monolithic cupae have been found in Barcelona (28 in total), but only the six from this burial route have been found in their original location.

References

* This article contains a translation from " Via sepulcral de la plaça de la Vila de Madrid" from Catalan Wikipedia.

External links

Guia temàtica Biblioteca ETSAB: Necròpolis romana
{{Authority control Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Barcelona Buildings and structures in Barcelonès History of Barcelona

See also

References

External links