Sant Marti d'Empuries:
When Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics, the Olympic torch first set foot on Spanish soil in a small North Eastern town of Spain called Ampurias (orEmpuries in Catalan). It was full of crowds gathering at the shore to see the small boat arrive with the torch. This town is one of Spain's most important Greek and Roman sites, comprising an entire Greek village as well as a Roman town and walls. The reason the torch arrived here was because both settlements were the first point of entry into the Peninsula, both for the Greeks and the Romans.
The site has a long history before the Greeks too, but I'm only going to write about Greece and Rome here.
The Greeks had trade links here from the 6th Century BC, but the area's history goes further back into the Bronze and Iron Ages. The site at Empuries (in Ancient Greek Emporion: commercial market) is formed of the Palaiapolis (old town, underneath nowadays' Sant Marti d'Empuries), the Nekropolis (cementery) and the Neapolis (new city). Of these three, the one with most documentation is the Neapolis, which is open to visitors all year round (the Palaiapolis is situated below the small village of Sant Marti, making it difficult to visit).
There are a few differences between the Greek site and the Roman site, in particular in terms of their construction. The Greek site, as shown in the first photo above, has smaller scale housing, and at a much closer proximity, whereas the Roman ruins show more spread out buildings with larger rooms (as in the second picture). There were also many more mosaics in the Roman town, which probably meant a richer settlement than the Greek town.
When Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics, the Olympic torch first set foot on Spanish soil in a small North Eastern town of Spain called Ampurias (orEmpuries in Catalan). It was full of crowds gathering at the shore to see the small boat arrive with the torch. This town is one of Spain's most important Greek and Roman sites, comprising an entire Greek village as well as a Roman town and walls. The reason the torch arrived here was because both settlements were the first point of entry into the Peninsula, both for the Greeks and the Romans.
The site has a long history before the Greeks too, but I'm only going to write about Greece and Rome here.
The Greeks had trade links here from the 6th Century BC, but the area's history goes further back into the Bronze and Iron Ages. The site at Empuries (in Ancient Greek Emporion: commercial market) is formed of the Palaiapolis (old town, underneath nowadays' Sant Marti d'Empuries), the Nekropolis (cementery) and the Neapolis (new city). Of these three, the one with most documentation is the Neapolis, which is open to visitors all year round (the Palaiapolis is situated below the small village of Sant Marti, making it difficult to visit).
There are a few differences between the Greek site and the Roman site, in particular in terms of their construction. The Greek site, as shown in the first photo above, has smaller scale housing, and at a much closer proximity, whereas the Roman ruins show more spread out buildings with larger rooms (as in the second picture). There were also many more mosaics in the Roman town, which probably meant a richer settlement than the Greek town.
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