The Roman Walls of Ceasar Augusta – Zaragoza, Spain - Atlas Obscura

The Roman Walls of Ceasar Augusta

Remains of the walls of the Roman city named for its founder. 

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The emperor Augustus founded the city which later became Zaragoza between 25 BCE and 11 BCE as a “colonia”to settle army veterans that has served in the Cantabrian wars. 

Unique in the empire he named it for  himself as Caesaraugusta. It had all the facilities  of a Roman city including baths, a theatre and a forum. It was an important  river port and economic  centre. The heyday of the city was in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD but the town walls date from around a century later.

Cesaraugusta was surrounded by a 2 mile long wall with about  120 towers. Not much of the 2 miles is left but what is there is relatively  easy to access.  The walls  were up to 21 feet  thick. The exterior skin was made of alabaster with limestone ashlars and the interior was constructed with opus caementicium, or Roman concrete. Its semicircular towers had a minimum diameter of 24 feet with some of 39 feet such as one of  those flanking the western gate.

The best remaining  walls are alongside Ave. de César Augusta between the Zuda Tower and the Central Market. This length of wall, several yards long, is watched over by a bronze statue of Augustus  donated to the city by Mussolini in the 1940s. Other parts of the wall are incorporated into the structure  of a nearby convent and are identifiable by the profile of the towers.

 

Know Before You Go

The walls are directly next to the Tranvia tram route.

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