Roman City of Pol-lèntia · Alcúdia (EN)

Roman city of Pol-lèntia In 123 B.C. the Balearic Islands, under the command of the Roman Consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus, were integrated into the Roman world and the cities of Pol-lèntia (in Alcúdia) and Palma were founded. As a consequence, a new culture and language was imposed: Latin. With the Romanization process, new urban models were implemented and urban life appeared for the first time. Pol-lèntia, being located between two bays, had two ports: the Major Port in the Bay of Alcúdia and the Minor Port in the Bay of Pollença. The remains found in the Roman city of Pol-lèntia, show us that it was a city that knew moments of great splendor. History of the site The first news of Pol-lèntia date from the sixteenth century, due to a series of casual findings as important as the bust of Augustus Veiled, and that are the starting point for a series of studies that extend over time to the present. The first systematic excavations began in the 1920s with Professor Gabriel Llabrés Quintana and Rafel Issassi. In 1936 the civil war marked a break in research, which later resumed until today, with such prominent names as Almagro, Tarradell, Arribas or Wood and, from the 50s, through the creation of the Hispanic American Archaeological Center, under the patronage of the William Bryant Foundation, which completed its work in the last years of the same decade, being relieved by the Consistory of the City of Pollentia. Archaeological area The Roman city of Pol-lèntia is located south of the historic center of Alcúdia, towards the port. With an extension of between 16 to 21 hectares, in which different excavated areas can be found, which reveal different revealing aspects of the lifestyle in this city during the Roman period. The excavated space allows us to see an urban structure, totally planned with a grid layout with parallel and perpendicular streets, a group of houses (La Portella), the forum where the public buildings were located and on the outskirts the theater. La Portella: This area, located south of the parish church, is the closest to the historic center. The remains that can still be seen correspond to a neighborhood of houses: the house "of the two Treasures", of which the entire floor plan organized by the central courtyard or atrium is preserved; the house "of the Bronze Head", and the house "Northwest", in addition to a series of structures categorized as workshops. Nowadays, the road layout can be seen, as well as a fragment of the Roman wall from the 3rd century AD. The Forum: This space was the social and religious center of the city. From inside you can see remains of the Capitoline temple, a set of tabernae (stores) that constituted the commercial area, as well as other structures of which include the edicule, which currently focuses much of the research on the urban layout of Pol-lèntia. The forum is where excavation campaigns are currently being carried out during the summer period. The long use of this area culminated with the settlement of a necropolis (around 600 AD). The Roman Theater: Located on the outskirts of the city of Pol-lèntia, it was a leisure center for the entire population from the first century AD. Of its semicircular structure without a roof, a good part of the vault or bleachers, the orchestra and the stage are preserved. It is also possible to see, as in the Forum, the remains of a necropolis over the structures of the theater. It is worth noting the particularity of being a theater excavated in the rock, unlike most Roman theaters. For the last thirty years a theater season has been held in August and has a large number of followers who, with their presence, keep alive the spirit of our ancestors.