Plank Road: Baelo Claudia

Today we drove a short distance down the highway to the Roman ruins at Baelo Claudia. The archaeological site of Baelo Claudia is the most complete Roman city in the Iberian Peninsula. It is also located in a spectacular seaside location behind the Bay of Bolonia, on the northern side of the Straits of Gibralter.

The city expanded in the first half of the 2nd century AD because it became an important centre for salting fish and for manufacturing the Roman delicacy garum, which is a sauce made from the fermentation of fish guts. There are excellent ruins near the sea of the salting pans and the structures that held the garum brine.

The city is laid out in the usual Roman grid pattern with the forum located where the two main roads intersect. The decumanus maximus, which runs east-west has its original pavement, which visitors can walk on. The main road running north-south is called the cardo. The roads begin at the city gates and the city is surrounded by walls. As well, three aqueducts brought fresh water to the city.

As is the norm, the necropolis or burial area is situated outside the city walls. The city is complete with a forum, basilica, shops, temples, baths, theatre, and market.

The site is very well done and extremely well maintained, this appears to be the norm at Spanish archaeological sites. This was a pleasure to visit as it was another beautiful sunny day and the backdrop of the sea is just gorgeous.

The city began to decline in the latter half of the 2nd century AD, it then suffered an earthquake in the 3rd century AD. The city was abandoned completely in the 7th century AD.

There is a modern visitor’s centre complete with museum. Many of the important sculpture pieces excavated are in the archaeological museum in Cadiz. There are fish hooks, net needles, anchors etc. which demonstrate that the economy was based on fish.

After we left Baelo Claudia, we drove through a nearby Natural Park, passing through small villages where the majority of the locals appeared to be out for Sunday lunch, which is late in the day in Spain.

There are always roundabouts at the intersections of minor and major highways. Some police were stationed at one of the roundabouts, standing on the road. They ignored us and stopped the car behind us. On our way back down another minor highway, we got stopped by the police at one of the roundabouts. He walked up to the car with a bag in his hand, full of individually packaged small tubes of hard plastic. He then rattled off something in Spanish, we stared at him blankly of course. He must of then seen the map on my lap and then peeled off something else in Spanish to which I replied no entiendo, i.e. do not understand and then he motioned us to go, so we took off. It may have been a breathalyzer type of test, that is our guess, anyway.

The silhouetted bull is all over Spain along the highways, they were originally advertising signs for the Osborne sherry company. Advertising laws then prohibited the signs, they were to be removed, but the public protested, so the signs remain with the advertising painted out.