MERIDA (anc. Augusta Emerita, capital of Lusitania)

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 165 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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MERIDA (anc. Augusta Emerita, capital of Lusitania) , a town of western Spain, in the province of Badajoz, on the right bank of the river Guadiana, 30 M. E. of Badajoz. Pop. (1900), 11,168. Merida is an important railway junction, for here the Madrid-Badajoz railway meets the lines from Seville,

Huelva

HUELVA
HUELVA (the ancient Onuba, Onoba, or Onuba Aestuaria)

and Caceres. No Spanish town is richer in Roman antiquities. Most of these are beyond the limits of modern Merida, which is greatly inferior in area to the ancient city.

Chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

among them is the Roman bridge, constructed of granite under Trajan, or, according to some authorities, under

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

, and restored by the Visigoths in 686 and by Philip III. in Oro. It comprised 81 arches, 17 of which were destroyed during the siege of Badajoz (1812), and measured 2575 ft. in length. There are a few remnants of Romantemples and of the colossal

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

which encircled the city, besides a Roman triumphal arch, commonly called the Arco de Santiago, and a second Roman bridge, by which the road to Salamanca was carried across the small river Albarregas (Alba Regia). The Moorish alcdzar or citadel was originally the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

Roman fort. From the Lago de Proserpina, or Charca de la Albuera, a large Roman reservoir, 3 M. north, water was conveyed to Merida by an aqueduct, of which 37 enormous piers remain

standing

STANDING

, with ten arches in three tiers built of brick and granite. The massive Roman theatre is in good preservation; there are also a few vestiges of an amphitheatre and of a

circus

CIRCUS (Lat. circus, Gr. Kipeos or Kptxot, a ring or' circle; probably " circus " and " ring " are of the same origin)

which measured 485 yds. by 120. Other Roman remains are exhibited in the archaeological museum, and much Roman masonry is incorporated in the 16th century Mudejar palace of the dukes of La Roca, the palace of the

counts

COUNTS

of Los Corbos, and the convent of Santa Eulalia, which is said by tradition to mark the spot where St Eulalia was martyred (c. 300).
Augusta Emerita was founded in 25 B.C. As the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of Lusitania it soon became one of the most splendid cities in Iberia, and was large enough to contain a garrison of 90,000 men. Under the Visigoths it continued to prosper, and was made an archbishopric. Its fortifications included five castles and eighty-four gateways; but after a stubborn resistance it was stormed by the Moors in 713. Its Moorish governors frequently, and sometimes successfully, asserted their independence, but Merida was never the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of any large Moorish state. In 1129 its archbishopric was formally transferred to Santiago de Compostela, and in 1228, when

Alphonso

ALPHONSO

IX. of Leon expelled the Moors, Merida was entrusted to the order of Santiago, in whose keeping it soon sank into decadence.

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