Most Recent Visit: July 2022
In 29 BCE, Augustus began a campaign in the northwestern part of Hispania to attempt to pacify the last remaining populations not more or less submitting to Roman hegemony on the peninsula; the Cantabri and the Astures. The bloody ten year long conflict saw the Romans not taking prisoners and the Cantabri refusing to be taken prisoner. While both groups would sporadically continue to resist Roman occupation, major combat wound down in 19 BCE. It was sometime during the course of this campaign known as the Cantabrian War, or shortly after, that the city of Juliobriga seems to have been established in the territory of the Cantabri. A date of 15 BCE is sometimes given as a likely foundation. It does not seem to have been founded on a preexisting indigenous settlement, but may have replaced a Cantabrian fort that previously occupied the spot. Today Juliobiga is located in the modern town of Retortillo.
Juliobriga was founded close to the source of the Iberus (modern Ebro) and about midway along a strategic pass through the Iuga Asturum (modern Cordillera Cantábrica) that allowed it to control access from the Sinus Cantabrorum (modern Bay of Biscay) to the interior of the peninsula. Though it was a civilian administrative center, the military component of the control of the pass was located at the south end of the pass at Pisoraca (modern Herrera de Pisuerga) where Legio IV Macedonica was stationed. At the north end on the Sinus Cantabrorum was the port city of Juliobriga; Portus Victoriae Juliobrigensium (modern Santander). The name was a combination of the gens of Augustus, who was responsible for the establishment of the settlement, and the Celtic toponym briga, meaning a hill or fortified place.
According to Pliny the Elder, Juliobriga was included in the Conventus Cluniensis and was one of seven cities in the territory of the Cantabri. He notes, though, that it is the only city of the seven worth mentioning. Juliobriga seems to have reached its peak in the 1st century CE. It is noted that the cohors Celtibera was stationed in Juliobriga following the civil wars of 68-69 CE. The city seems to have been mostly abandoned in the 3rd century CE, with sporadic occupation in the 4th century CE. By the 5th century CE it is likely mostly destroyed by the invasions/migrations of the 5th century CE.
Getting There: Retortillo is a bit off the beaten path. There is a train station in Reinosa that has a few departures/arrivals daily between Santander and Valladolid (about 1.5 hours from Santander and 2 hours from Valladolid). From the train station, however, there doesn’t seem to be any regular public transportation to Retortillo, and the walking distance is about 4.5 kilometers. Between the infrequent trains and the long walking distance, a private vehicle seems to be the most reliable way to visit.
The best place to start is the Domus de Julióbriga, which is a reconstruction of a Roman domus and serves as a small museum and interpretive center for the site. In peak season (June 15 through September 15) it is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 to 14:00 and 15:00 to 19:00. It is open on Sunday from 10:00 to 15:30. For middle season (March 1 through June 14 and September 16 through October 20) it is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 to 14:00 and 15:30 to 18:00. It is open on Sunday from 9:30 to 15:00. The rest of the year it is open Tuesday to Friday and Sunday from 9:30 to 15:30 and is open on Saturday from 9:30 to 14:30 and 15:30 to 17:30. It is closed on Monday all year. Admission is 3 Euros and also allows a 1 Euro discount with Camesa-Rebolledo Villa if visited the same day.
Admission to the Domus de Julióbriga includes a guided tour of the reconstructed part of the Roman house, the first floor, essentially. These typically run about once an hour. Their website outlines the specific times of the tours for various days and times of year. The reconstruction and tour are about what you would expect. It isn’t anything groundbreaking. If you’ve seen or done something like that at any number of other reconstructions, it’s about the same. I did it because it was included, so there was no reason not to. It was mostly in Spanish, but the guide made an effort to offer to answer any questions I had in English.
Upstairs is the museum portion of the center. It’s not a very large collection, most of the best pieces from Juliobriga are in the Museo de Prehistoria y Arqueología de Cantabria in Santander. There are a lot of modern reconstructions of clothing and such. A lot of pictures of the history of the excavations. The collection has some ancient objects, but these are mostly small finds such as terracotta objects and smaller bronze things. Most of the information is available in Spanish, French, and English.
The archaeological remains of Juliobriga are effectively split into three (technically four if taking into account the westernmost excavations are bisected into two separate plots by a road) excavation areas. Adjacent to the Domus de Julióbriga are some excavations around the 12th century CE Iglesia de Santa María. This area was the forum of the city. Part of the southern and western porticos of the forum are visible making an L shape around the south side of the church. Bases for the columns that comprised the central element of the portico can be seen along both stretches. Because of the slope of the hill, a robust retaining wall was needed to level out the area of the square of the forum. The entire extent of the northern portico of the forum is visible, with the turn to the east portico visible near the northwest corner of the church.
Attached to the west/northwest side of the forum is a square construction that was the podium for a temple. Beneath the church, another building was apparently found which has been identified as possibly being the curia. This central part of the forum was built during the Flavian period, following a fire circa 60-70 CE which damaged/destroyed this part of the city. To the west of the temple is another square building constructed on the slope of the hill. This structure dates to the end of the 1st century CE and has been identified as a series of three tabernae. The tabernae remained in use until the 3rd century CE. The forum and tabernae excavations are not directly accessible, they can only be seen from the street. The church does not seem to have any sort of regular opening either. A small sign explaining the excavations in English and Spanish (as well as providing a helpful plan of the area) is located at the south side of the excavated area.
About 220 meters down that road that runs along the south side of the forum is the second area of excavations. It is fenced, but there is an access gate that doesn’t look like it is ever shut, so presumably this area is effectively open access. This area is known as La Llanuca and consists mainly of a lavish residence of about 1,000 square meters. It was originally constructed in the 1st century BCE. The western part of this home consists of a series or rooms arranged around a peristyle. The entrance was located on the south side at about the midpoint of the peristyle. On the opposite side of the peristyle was the triclinium.
The eastern portion of this house, which is not as well excavated or restored, including a bathing complex. What is now a depression in the ground was a cistern associated with the complex. Adjacent to this are the remnants of a circular room that has been identified as the laconicum of the baths. The faint remnants of a water channel can be seen running south/southeast out of the cistern, with a parallel channel running from a circular construction about 9 meters to the southwest. The decumanus maximus ran along the south/east side of the house, with tabernae facing onto the street from the bathing half of the building. The remnants of some column bases from the colonnade that lined the decumanus maximus are present, as well as some reconstructed concrete columns to recreate part of it. Like the forum area, there are a few signs in English and Spanish explaining the area.
Retracing back toward the forum, where this small unnamed road intersects with Calle Nuestra Señora /CA-732, and then following the latter about 100 meters to the north brings you to the excavations bisected by the road. The area on the south side of the road, which are accessible by a similar gated area to the La Llanuca and seemingly always open, is appropriately called the Southern Sector. Located here are a series of several modest homes built at the end of the 1st century CE. Unlike the more wealthy homes, these lack an interior courtyard or atrium and consist of just a few internal rooms. Each seems to have had small plots of land for small scale agricultural/husbandry activities. Some of these houses even seem to have had a second story. Though not terribly visible, a road ran along the south side of this neighborhood. Like the other area, the Southern Sector also has an informational sign in English and Spanish.
On the north side of Calle Nuestra Señora are the wealthy residences of the Casa de los Morillos and the Casa de los Mosaicos. The Casa de los Mosiacos is only partially excavated in the north part of this area, and is not particularly well conserved with comparison to the Casa de los Morillos. Really only the very southern part of the house is visible, though the remnants of a hypocaust system have apparently been found here. The more well-preserved Casa de los Morillos makes up the bulk of this area. It has a more or less square plan of a series of rooms arranged around a central peristyle. The reconstructed Domus de Julióbriga was modeled on the excavations of the Casa de los Morillos. The entrance to the house faces towards the east, with the triclinium again directly opposite the entrance. Both of these residences were constructed toward the end of the 1st century CE.
Juliobriga is quite a bit off the tourist path, even in the high season I didn’t see very many others there while I was visiting. It only took me about 2 hours total to see everything (and that includes a little bit of waiting around for the tour of the Domus de Julióbriga. It’s a pretty easy day trip from a number of cities around and can be combined with a few other interesting things in the surrounding areas of the city, which we’ll explore in the following post.
Continued In Juliobriga, Hispania Tarraconensis Part II
Sources:
Curchin, Leonard A. Roman Spain: Conquest and Assimilation. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Gil, José Manuel Iglesias. Juliobriga in its Historical Setting. Cuadernos de Campoo, No. 4 (June 1996).
Gomez, Jose Maria Robles. From Juliobriga to Octavioca. Cuadernos de Campoo, No. 10 (December 1997).
Luis-Ruiz, Julio Manuel de, et. al. Optimization of Photogrammetric Flights with UAVs for the Metric Virtualization of Archaeological Sites. Application to Juliobriga (Cantabria, Spain). Applied Sciences, Vol. 11, No. 1204 (2021).
Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historiae, 3.4.4-8, 4.34.1.
Ptolemy. Geographia, 2.60.50.
Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Walton & Murray, 1870.
Stillwell, Richard, William L. MacDonald, and Marian Holland. McAllister. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U Press, 1976.