Idanha-a-Velha: walking over the ruins of a Roman city in the middle of nowhere

Idanha-a-Velha is not a museum: it is a living village, with its one hundred inhabitants, its chickens scratching among the ruins, its elders sitting in front of their doors in the sun. But beneath every small square, every vegetable garden, every paved surface lies another city: Egitânia, or Civitas Igaeditanorum, the Roman city founded in 16 BC that grew to host thousands of people and was for centuries an essential road junction of the Empire.

The city beneath the village

The remains of Egitânia surface everywhere, as if the earth couldn't keep them buried. A Roman temple dedicated to Venus — of which only the medieval tower the Templars built on top survives. The aqueduct. The foundations of baths, domus, fora. And above all, the inscriptions: Idanha-a-Velha holds the largest collection of Roman epigraphs in all of Europe, gathered in a building adjacent to the cathedral that serves as a nearly open-air lapidary.

The Visigothic cathedral

The Sé de Idanha-a-Velha is one of the most history-laden buildings in all of Portugal. Built on the remains of a 4th-century early Christian basilica, rebuilt by the Visigoths in the 6th–7th centuries — when Egitânia was an episcopal seat — it is considered the first Visigothic cathedral erected on the Iberian Peninsula. The Moors converted it into a mosque, the Templars restored it as a church. Its walls contain reused Roman capitals, fragmentary mosaics, and inscriptions in three languages.

Getting there

Idanha-a-Velha lies a few kilometres from Monsanto and about 280 kilometres from Lisbon. There is no public transport: a car is necessary. The site is freely accessible; the lapidary has limited hours but the interpretive panels outside allow a satisfying self-guided visit. Spring and autumn are the best seasons: in summer the sun is merciless on the open plain.