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Mérida, Spain

1st-century BC establishments in Spain1st century BC in Hispania20s BC establishments in the Roman Empire25 BC establishmentsEstablishments in Spain in the Roman era
Municipalities in the Province of BadajozMérida, SpainPages with Spanish IPARoman towns and cities in Spain
Teatro romano de Mérida. España 3
Teatro romano de Mérida. España 3

Mérida (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmeɾiða]) is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Province of Badajoz, and capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura. Located in the western-central part of the Iberian Peninsula at 217 metres above sea level, the city is crossed by the Guadiana and Albarregas rivers. The population was 60,119 in 2017. Emerita Augusta was founded as a Roman colony in 25 BC under the order of the emperor Augustus to serve as a retreat for the veteran soldiers (emeritus) of the legions V Alaudae and X Gemina. The city, one of the most important in Roman Hispania, was endowed with all the comforts of a large Roman city and served as capital of the Roman province of Lusitania since its founding and as the capital of the entire Diocese of Hispania during the fourth century. Following invasions from the Visigoths, Mérida remained an important city of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania in the 6th century. In the 713, the city was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and remained under Muslim rule. The Mozarabic people of the island rebelled repeatedly against the Caliphate authorities in the 9th century and the city began a slow decline. After the Almohad rule, Mérida, that had acknowledged Ibn Hud against the former, was seized by Alfonso IX of León in 1230. It is, together with Badajoz, ecclesiastically the metropolitan seat of the Archdiocese of Mérida-Badajoz. It became the capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura in 1983. The archeological site in the city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. The current Mayor (since 2015) is Antonio Rodríguez Osuna, from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Mérida, Spain (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Mérida, Spain
Calle Pablo Neruda, Merida San Andrés

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 38.9 ° E -6.3333333333333 °
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Address

Calle Pablo Neruda

Calle Pablo Neruda
06808 Merida, San Andrés
Extremadura, Spain
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Teatro romano de Mérida. España 3
Teatro romano de Mérida. España 3
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Alcazaba of Mérida
Alcazaba of Mérida

The Alcazaba of Mérida is a ninth-century Muslim fortification in Mérida, Spain. Like other historical edifices in the city, it is part of the UNESCO Heritage List.Located near the Roman bridge over the Guadiana river, the Puente Romano, it was built by emir Abd ar-Rahman II of Córdoba in 835 to command the city, which had rebelled in 805. It was the first Muslim alcazaba (a type of fortification in the Iberian peninsula), and includes a big squared line of walls, every side measuring 130 metres in length, 10 m of height and 2.7 m thickness, built re-using Roman walls and Roman-Visigothic edifices in granite. The walls include 25 towers with quadrangular base, which also served as counterforts. Inside is an aljibe, a rainwater tank including a cistern to collect and filter water from the river.The Alcazaba is accessed from the Puente Romano through a small enclosure, traditionally known Alcarazejo. This was used to check the traffic of pedestrians and goods to the city. Annexed is the military area, whose gate is flanked by two towers; over the horseshoe-shaped arc is an inscription celebrating Abd ar-Rahman's patronage of the work.Also annexed to the Alcazaba was a convent of the Order of Santiago, currently home to the council of the Extremadura community. The fortress has yielded other excavated areas containing remnants predating its construction. These include a well-preserved segment of a Roman road, which also extends to the Morerías Archaeological Area, and an urban Roman dwelling that has undergone multiple renovations and faces the same street. Additionally, a portion of the Roman wall is visible, adjacent to a powerful buttress constructed using recycled granite fragments. Similar to the Morerías Archaeological Area, this buttress is believed to date back to the fifth century AD.