Roman municipium of Allon
La Vila Joiosa is history. La Vila has an exceptional collection of archaeological pieces that talk about the history of the city through the civilizations that have lived in the past in this beautiful place on the shores of the Mediterranean. Phoenicians, Greeks, Etruscans, Iberians and Romans settled here and left their traces. The subsoil has protected them for thousands of years and little by little they are awakening from their rest to bear witness to the city's rich history.
In Vilamuseu we can contemplate very special pieces of extraordinary importance from all periods and civilisations, but perhaps the Roman period is the one that has provided more 'surprises'.
A 30-metre long merchant sailing ship loaded with lead ingots belonging to Nero, a large imperial public baths, a trench (Fossa Fastigata) demarcating a military camp of 500 soldiers from the Sertorian Wars, the best preserved funerary tower on the peninsula, the remains of a fishing tools factory from the 1st century BC, are some of the most significant finds that evidence the importance and the rise of Allon when in 74 A.D. it was declared a Roman municipium by the Emperor Vespasian. But Vilamuseu also houses thousands of objects from the Roman period in La Vila Joiosa, such as a bone stylus (the pen of the time), a bronze rattle with the face of the god Somnus, coins, trousseaux...
In 2006, the Imperial Public Baths of the Roman municipium of Allon were discovered in La Vila Joiosa. They were built at the end of the 1st century A.D., a time when the Colosseum was being built in Rome or when Vesuvius was devastating Pompeii. The Baths have also been found in very good condition and are actually one of the best preserved Roman civil works in the Valencian Community.
Besides the usual hot and cold pools, massage rooms and saunas, the public Imperial Baths of Allon also had some spaces in the open air with views of the river for gymnastics. At the entrance, where fees were charged, there may have been a bar and a street, with stone pavements, lined with 'shops' as a shopping area.
Furthermore, given its magnificence and location in the centre of the city, it is believed that bathers would have entered through a monumental entrance from the city's Forum (in which subsoil is now the Plaza de la Generalitat). With these characteristics, and its large size, we can understand the importance and prosperity Allon had after the Emperor Vespasian declared it a municipium in 74 AD. Its territory covered the whole of the current Marina Baixa where there were villages and villas, luxurious residences such as Albir or La Pila in Altea.
But these thermal baths in La Vila Joiosa have been more than an important archaeological discovery, proving that Allon, the fourth and last Roman city in the province of Alicante, is in the subsoil of the urban centre of the city. They are still covered, waiting for a plan of restoration to be implemented next year.
La Vila Joiosa is history. Very close to the Mediterranean, almost on its shore, on Torres Beach, we discover the Tower of Sant Josep, a funerary monument dedicated to Lucius Terentius Marcinus. It was built between 150-170 AD and is the largest of the three Roman funerary towers preserved in Spain. In 1543, when the city walls were destroyed by Barbary corsairs, the tower´s top stones were used to rebuild them. Fortunately, some ashlars were left behind and that is how it was possible to find out how the original tower was, and finally restore it.
The tower was completely enclosed except for holes on two sides for libations, offerings of wine to revive the deceased.
The tower was surrounded by a wall that contained one of the largest known Roman funerary enclosures in Europe. This enclosure had pedestals with statues and a garden with plants related to the eternity. The garden has now been recreated around the tower with the plants that could originally be found there, such as red rose, laurel, vine, ivy, myrtle, lavender and cypress, as well as acanthus, related to the tower. The garden is named after Elaine Evans, who patronised the restoration of the monument.
The Romans used the sides of the roads as burial places, so when people passed by they would remember the death . This tower was not built to be contemplated from a road but near the 'highway' of the time, the Mediterranean. In this way all those who sailed along the Mare Nostrum could clearly see the tower and remember Lucius Terentius.
In the middle of the 1st century AD, a large commercial sailing ship, 30 metres long, set sail from a port near Cadiz towards Rome or Narbonne, loaded with 2500 amphorae full of fish sauce and lead ingots from Sierra Morena, property of the Emperor Nero. During the crossing, the crew had a problem and decided to approach the last port on the peninsula that they found on their journey, the port of Allon. However, they did not make it, and a few miles from the coast they were shipwrecked. There it slept in silence for more than two thousand years, until 2001, when two divers from La Vila Joiosa, Antoine Ferrer and José Bou, discovered it.
The Bou Ferrer is the largest Roman merchant ship excavated in the Mediterranean. Due to its depth, accessible to divers ( 25 metres) and its excellent state of preservation, from the very beginning studies and protection projects started.
Excavations are carried out every year to discover new information about its story. The good condition of the wood has made it possible to even understand manufacturing techniques. Even some of the vine shoots used to protect the amphorae from hitting each other have been recovered, as well as the key to the pantry and some of the crew's cooking tools.
During the excavations, underwater visits are permitted, although they are not suitable for everyone, diving licence and experience are required, but it is absolutely worth it. The underwater visits are fully accessible also for people with reduced mobility.
In Vilamuseu, La Vila Joiosa's Network of Museums and Monuments, there is a Bou Ferrer Interpretation Centre that allows us to see and touch the lead ingots and amphorae as well as other objects that have been lying for two thousand years inside this Roman merchant ship in the Mediterranean seabed.
If when you walk through the centre of La Vila Joiosa you find a bronze medallion with the word Fossa (and you read this word correctly) it means that you are inside the area occupied by a Roman military camp from the Sertorian Wars that took place between 83 and 72 BC.
The axis of the protective trench that surrounded the camp, the Fossa Fastigata, is marked with bronze medallions in the ground.
The trench was about 2 m wide and 2 m deep. When the camp was built, this trench was filled in with pieces of adobe, possibly from the temporary barracks houses that were built for shelter during the winter.
During this period there was no fighting, and the soldiers dug in temporarily near an Iberian settlement. In the case of La Vila Joiosa, the soldiers controlled the entrance to the city and the port, two key communication points for the transport of goods and supplies.
It was a Roman camp for 500 men and was the first to be discovered in the Comunitat Valenciana, as well as one of the few discoveries of warfare at the time.
Would you like to walk along the same path Romans did in the 1st century A.D. in the Roman city of Allon? Well, in La Vila Joiosa this is possible. Actually it is a stretch of almost ten metres of the Via Lucentina, the road that linked the important port of Allon with Lucentum two thousand years ago, and along which we can walk as Romans did.
This stretch of 'Via Lucentina', this 'highway of Vespasian's time', was preserved in perfect condition 1.5 metres below the current street. It has been restored and settled stone by stone on the present ground level, so everybody can enjoy this Roman road in its original state, and also located in the exact position and orientation.
The road has a width of 14 Roman feet (4.20 metres), enough space for two carriages in parallel.
This road is one of those remodelled by Roman engineers in the middle of the 1st century AD, following the development of the city when the status of municipium was granted. Roman engineers were always looking for straight lines and roads were built in a similar way we do nowadays: lowering the ground, a retaining wall on one side to prevent erosion from rainfall, a level of rammed earth and a compacted layer of stones, pebbles to allow walking on it.
