Urban Planning and the University of Cordoba finalize two agreements to revive the Roman amphitheater and Cercadilla

These are two of the most interesting points of Roman Córdoba. About him amphitheater There has been talk for years in order to facilitate an agreement with the Urban Planning Management by which both researchers from the academic institution and the municipal archaeological team continue to delve deeper into the study of this infrastructure found as well as the possibility of clean it up so that it could be visited and turn it into a new tourist asset for the city and knowledge of its history.

In case of Little fence The responsibility falls more on the City Council, its owner. Last Christmas, the penultimate singular episode regarding the former imperial palace of Maximian was experienced: a shack inside it. The lack of cleaning of the remains next to the train tracks and the absence of a programme of visits that was intended to be promoted at the time have left another symbol of Roman Cordoba in oblivion.

The commitment already made in September 2023 by the PP government was, precisely, what it now wants to close with the UCO: clean, tidy up, investigate and publicize this site -that the AVE tracks upon arrival in Córdoba in 1991 split almost in half- and the discovery in the former Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 2003 in what was a western suburb, barely 200 meters away from the walled enclosure.

The last intervention that was carried out in the area was in 2021 and in it the Urban Planning Management carried out a vegetation clearing job. The possibility of opening the site to the public was not ruled out, but no deadlines or priorities were given. The cleaning was done, but the natural effects of the weather in an open-air location made it necessary to intervene again.

Although the site was municipal property at the beginning, it was the Junta de Andalucía that was responsible for recovering it and allowing visits. In the summer of 2005, Cercadilla, with notable improvements, joined the circuit of cultural and heritage spaces in Córdoba with a schedule very similar to the Synagogue or Medina Azaharafor example, and with the possibility of guided tours.

Money for improvements

Since those early years, the schedules began to gradually be reduced until Cercadilla It stopped being visitable in 2015. It was then that the City Council of that time, with the socialist Isabel Ambrosio As mayor, she decided to take back control of the complex presided over by the remains of the palace of Maximian Herculeus.

According to sources consulted by ABC, the signing of both agreements will take place in the coming weeks. First will be passed through the governing council of the Urban Planning Department and then, once the academic side gives its approval, the signature will be made. At the moment, no further details are known, especially regarding the financing of both. It is true that in the budgets of the autonomous municipal body there are items reserved for the Cercadilla case.

The amphitheater of Roman Cordoba had a capacity for between 30,000 and 50,000 spectators. The building, from the 1st century AD, is one of the largest in Hispania (Spain and Portugal) after Italica, and joins the largest in size: the Colosseum and Carthage.

According to the studies carried out after the discovery, precisely by both institutions (Urbanism and the UCO), the main axis of the building measured 178 meters long and the smallest, about 145, with a height of about 15 or 20 metres. What has been preserved from the amphitheatre is the foundation, including a distribution gallery and the podium wall, which separated the arena area from the stands.