Carranque
Encyclopedia
Carranque is a town in the Toledo province, Castile-La Mancha
, Spain
. It is located in the area of the province bordering the province of Madrid called the Alta Sagra.
that is protected as an archeological park by the Castile-La Mancha government. There are three main buildings visible by above-ground remains, the ruins of a Roman mill and a modern interpretation building.
It is located by the River Guadarrama
, near a Roman road
.
It seems to be near the lost city of Titultiam
The buildings date from the late fourth century and are thought to belong to a "Villa of Maternus Cinigius", the uncle of Theodosius. Theodosius I, Roman emperor, who was born in Hispania
. In 1983 a local peasant, Samuel López Iglesias, found a series of mosaic
floors while plowing in the fields known as las Suertes de Abajo.
The interpretation facility exhibits objects found during the excavations
The hall was surrounded with 32 monolithic
marble columns from the emperor's private quarries in Chios
in Greece (known as or chium) and Iscehisar
and Afyon in Anatolia (phygium or pavonazzeto marble).
Soon it was converted for use in Christian cult
and burials. The Visigoth
ic arrival brought some changes.
It was also used during the Islamic age
. The Knights Templar
used it as an abbey or monastery.
It appears as the hermitage of Santa María de Batres in the Relaciones de Felipe II (1576), with most of the area used as a cemetery. It was used as such until the 17th century.
The head of the Roman building, as the hermitage of Santa María de Abajo ("Saint Mary of the lower side"), lasted until around 1920 when it was dynamited to serve as construction material for the modern town.
Its decoration shows the power of the patron. There were plates of marble, red porphyry
, and green serpentinite
, wall painting, opus sectile
and mosaics with glass and golden-leaf tiles.
Anecdotally, the footprints of a caliga and a dog paw are visible on the mortar.
The floorplan, part of the head (the chapel) and some columns are now visible.
Its location (a little knoll over the river) offers an interpretation as a monumental cistern
with a fountain. Its shape reminds of a nymphaeum
.
It was built with opus caementicium (stone and mortar) and opus testaceum (brick). Mosaics covered the floor.
were the first found. The villa was built in the Theodosian era over earlier production facilities of an agricultural villa.
The slope was compensated with a terraced
construction over around 1,200 m²
It is shaped around a peristylum patio.
The hypocaust
under-floor heating and running water hint of the richness of the owner that becomes luxury when admiring the mosaics, assembled by at least three workshops, two of which took the unusual pride of signing their work.
Other rooms are covered with opus signinum
(chalk and crushed bricks).
The mosaics depict:
, where the owner held meetings and banquets showing off his social status, was ended by a raised exedra
. The mosaic depicts the death of Adonis
. Two dogs named Leander and Titurus are also represented.
was complemented by ceramic tubes in the walls that pulled the hot air upwards. The mosaic depicts the gift of the slave Briseis
to Achilles
as narrated in the Iliad
.
A sloped floor formed a semicircular wall fountain with a mosaic of the god Oceanus
, featuring crab antennas and claws and a wavy beard. The water effect was completed by blue-glass windows.
Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. It is located in the area of the province bordering the province of Madrid called the Alta Sagra.
Archeological park
Carranque contains the site of a Roman villaRoman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
that is protected as an archeological park by the Castile-La Mancha government. There are three main buildings visible by above-ground remains, the ruins of a Roman mill and a modern interpretation building.
It is located by the River Guadarrama
Guadarrama
Guadarrama is a town in the Community of Madrid in Spain.Pop: 13032 , approx. 60000 .Co-ordinates . not true...
, near a Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
.
It seems to be near the lost city of Titultiam
The buildings date from the late fourth century and are thought to belong to a "Villa of Maternus Cinigius", the uncle of Theodosius. Theodosius I, Roman emperor, who was born in Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
. In 1983 a local peasant, Samuel López Iglesias, found a series of mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
floors while plowing in the fields known as las Suertes de Abajo.
The interpretation facility exhibits objects found during the excavations
Building A: Basilica
A Theodosian-era building that takes as models the governors' palaces.The hall was surrounded with 32 monolithic
Monolithic column
A monolithic column is a column of which the shaft is made from one single piece of stone instead of different sections.They are sometimes called 'single-piece columns' and were most likely used on ancient temples....
marble columns from the emperor's private quarries in Chios
Chios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
in Greece (known as or chium) and Iscehisar
Iscehisar
İscehisar is a town and district of Afyonkarahisar Province in the Aegean region of Turkey, on the road between the city of Afyon and Ankara. The mayor is İsmail Bayram .-Economy:...
and Afyon in Anatolia (phygium or pavonazzeto marble).
Soon it was converted for use in Christian cult
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
and burials. The Visigoth
Visigoth
The Visigoths were one of two main branches of the Goths, the Ostrogoths being the other. These tribes were among the Germans who spread through the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period...
ic arrival brought some changes.
It was also used during the Islamic age
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
. The Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
used it as an abbey or monastery.
It appears as the hermitage of Santa María de Batres in the Relaciones de Felipe II (1576), with most of the area used as a cemetery. It was used as such until the 17th century.
The head of the Roman building, as the hermitage of Santa María de Abajo ("Saint Mary of the lower side"), lasted until around 1920 when it was dynamited to serve as construction material for the modern town.
Its decoration shows the power of the patron. There were plates of marble, red porphyry
Porphyry (geology)
Porphyry is a variety of igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocrysts...
, and green serpentinite
Serpentinite
Serpentinite is a rock composed of one or more serpentine group minerals. Minerals in this group are formed by serpentinization, a hydration and metamorphic transformation of ultramafic rock from the Earth's mantle...
, wall painting, opus sectile
Opus sectile
Opus sectile refers to an art technique popularized in the ancient and medieval Roman world where materials were cut and inlaid into walls and floors to make a picture or pattern. Common materials were marble, mother of pearl, and glass. The materials were cut in thin pieces, polished, then trimmed...
and mosaics with glass and golden-leaf tiles.
Anecdotally, the footprints of a caliga and a dog paw are visible on the mortar.
The floorplan, part of the head (the chapel) and some columns are now visible.
Building B: nympheum
Only remains of the floorplan were found.Its location (a little knoll over the river) offers an interpretation as a monumental cistern
Cistern
A cistern is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by their waterproof linings...
with a fountain. Its shape reminds of a nymphaeum
Nymphaeum
A nymphaeum or nymphaion , in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs....
.
It was built with opus caementicium (stone and mortar) and opus testaceum (brick). Mosaics covered the floor.
Building C: Villa of Maternus
Remains of the Roman villaRoman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
were the first found. The villa was built in the Theodosian era over earlier production facilities of an agricultural villa.
The slope was compensated with a terraced
Terrace (agriculture)
Terraces are used in farming to cultivate sloped land. Graduated terrace steps are commonly used to farm on hilly or mountainous terrain. Terraced fields decrease erosion and surface runoff, and are effective for growing crops requiring much water, such as rice...
construction over around 1,200 m²
It is shaped around a peristylum patio.
The hypocaust
Hypocaust
A hypocaust was an ancient Roman system of underfloor heating, used to heat houses with hot air. The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and caust-, meaning "burnt"...
under-floor heating and running water hint of the richness of the owner that becomes luxury when admiring the mosaics, assembled by at least three workshops, two of which took the unusual pride of signing their work.
Other rooms are covered with opus signinum
Opus signinum
Opus signinum is a building material occasionally used in ancient Rome. It is made of tiles broken up into very small pieces, mixed with mortar, and then beaten down with a rammer...
(chalk and crushed bricks).
Sleeping room of Maternus
The cubiculum has a mosaic text in which the worker wishes Maternus prosperity. This Maternus is thought to be Maternus Cinigius, uncle of the emperor Theodosius.The mosaics depict:
- Portraits of Athena, Hercules and Diana.
- the kidnapping of HylasHylasIn Greek mythology, Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians. Roman sources such as Ovid state that Hylas' father was Hercules and his mother was the nymph Melite, or that his mother was the wife of Theiodamas, whose adulterous affair with Heracles caused the war between him and her...
by the Nymphs. - ActeonActaeonActaeon , in Greek mythology, son of the priestly herdsman Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero. Like Achilles in a later generation, he was trained by the centaur Chiron....
and the bath of Diana. - Pyramus and ThisbePyramus and ThisbePyramus and Thisbe are two characters of Roman mythology, whose love story of ill-fated lovers is also a sentimental romance.The tale is told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses.-Plot:...
- AmymoneAmymoneIn Greek mythology, Amymone was a daughter of Danaus. As the "blameless" Danaid, her name identifies her as, perhaps, identical to Hypermnestra , also the one Danaid who did not assassinate her Egyptian husband on their wedding night, as her 49 sisters did...
and NeptuneNeptune (mythology)Neptune was the god of water and the sea in Roman mythology and religion. He is analogous with, but not identical to, the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto, each of them presiding over one of the three realms of the universe,...
Meeting room
The oecusOecus
Oecus, the Latinized form of Gr. oikos, house, used by Vitruvius for the principal hall or salon in a Roman house, which was used occasionally as a triclinium for banquets....
, where the owner held meetings and banquets showing off his social status, was ended by a raised exedra
Exedra
In architecture, an exedra is a semicircular recess or plinth, often crowned by a semi-dome, which is sometimes set into a building's facade. The original Greek sense was applied to a room that opened onto a stoa, ringed with curved high-backed stone benches, a suitable place for a philosophical...
. The mosaic depicts the death of Adonis
Adonis
Adonis , in Greek mythology, the god of beauty and desire, is a figure with Northwest Semitic antecedents, where he is a central figure in various mystery religions. The Greek , Adōnis is a variation of the Semitic word Adonai, "lord", which is also one of the names used to refer to God in the Old...
. Two dogs named Leander and Titurus are also represented.
Dining hall
The hypocaust of the tricliniumTriclinium
A triclinium is a formal dining room in a Roman building. The word is adopted from the Greek τρικλίνιον, triklinion, from τρι-, tri-, "three", and κλίνη, klinē, a sort of "couch" or rather chaise longue...
was complemented by ceramic tubes in the walls that pulled the hot air upwards. The mosaic depicts the gift of the slave Briseis
Briseis
Brisēís was a mythical queen in Asia Minor at the time of the Trojan War. Her character lies at the center of a dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon that drives the plot of Homer's Iliad.-Story:...
to Achilles
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....
as narrated in the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
.
A sloped floor formed a semicircular wall fountain with a mosaic of the god Oceanus
Oceanus
Oceanus ; , Ōkeanós) was a pseudo-geographical feature in classical antiquity, believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to be the world-ocean, an enormous river encircling the world....
, featuring crab antennas and claws and a wavy beard. The water effect was completed by blue-glass windows.