Thursday, June 5, 2008

Roman Ruins of Conimbriga

One of our reasons for our visit to Coimbra, was to also visit the Roman ruins at Conimbriga, just 15 km away.

Considered to be the best Roman site in Portugal, the visit was greatly anticipated. The area has been settled since the 9th century BC and the Romans in the second half of the first century BC.

We saw magnificent mosaics in situ, foundations of many houses and public buildings, baths and aquaducts, the forum and a very early Christian basilica. Most of the area was absolutely wonderful but a few, had in our humble opinion, been rather spoilt by poor reconstruction.

The museum housed many of the items that had been found on the site and whilst small, it had an excellent display of all things Roman.

We caught the return bus back to Coimbra to the news that we may be stranded by a train strike starting tomorrow. At least we know how to ask 'pergunto: ha comboios amanha? Is there a train strike tomorrow?

We think all is ok but there may be many more posts from Coimbra. We hope to be in Lisbon tomorrow.

1 comment:

theotherbear said...

That sounds quite fascinating. The romans really had it going on, didn't they. Perhaps I should have payed attention in history back in school. It might have been interesting after all.