Emerita Augusta, Roman archaeological site in Mérida, Spain

Emerita Augusta is a sprawling Roman archaeological site that extends across large parts of the modern city of Mérida in western Spain. Visible remains include a large theater with a semicircular seating area, an oval amphitheater for public games, several temple ruins, traces of residential quarters with floor mosaics, and two stone bridges that still cross the river today.

Augustus founded the colony in 25 BCE as a home for retired soldiers from two legions after the end of the Cantabrian Wars in northern Iberia. The settlement grew into a major administrative center for the Roman province of Lusitania and kept that role for several centuries until the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The Roman theater is still used for performances, hosting classical drama in Latin and Spanish each summer. Spectators sit on the same stone tiers once occupied by the city's residents. The upper seating, long buried, was known as "The Seven Chairs", where tradition says Moorish kings met to decide the city's fate.

The monuments are spread across Mérida, so allow time to walk between them. The Roman Circus lies outside the old walled area, next to the roads that once led to Córdoba and Toledo, and has an interpretation centre that explains the structure before you enter. The Guadiana bridge is 792 metres long and connects to the Decumanus Maximus.

The local museum preserves inscriptions that document the names and origins of individual legionaries who settled here after their service. Some tombstones even show the faces of these soldiers in carved portraits.