Villa Romana ( Roman Villa).Salar,Granada Province

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BENIDORM
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Location: Granada Province

Villa Romana ( Roman Villa).Salar,Granada Province

Postby BENIDORM » Thu Dec 05, 2019 1:08 pm

The Fantastic Roman Villa in Salar this year revealed more treasures, very rare mosaics and many atrefacts including Venus Statuettes.

However the powers that be want to remove the Venus statues and place them in Granada City..... :shock:

Of course the locals are very angry and last week organised a peaceful demonstration outside the Town Hall and of course we decided to join in !!
I arrived at the demonstration clutching my hastily assembled placard and joined in with the many 100's of demonstrators, only to observe that I was the only person with a placard......Yikes ..I thought..
Immediately I was ushered to the front and asked to line up with the Mayor and other 'important' people, I had written the placard in English -to make an International statement...it worked, I was filmed by numerous TV cameramen and photographed by several newspaper reporters.. :oops:
My placard stated..PLEASE...HANDS OFF SALAR'S HERITAGE...(.I really hope it worked)..
A few days later a very funny cartoon appeared in one of the papers and they seemed to have used my placard theme...Great..!!

Anyway ,if you haven't visited the Villa I can really recommend it, it's open Wednesday to Sunday, you attend the exhibition at the the Town Hall first, plenty of details available on the internet..
Please feel free to contact me for further information and if you visit on a Saturday or Sunday I'd be happy to show you around...

Regards,
Gordonious the Third.... :D
Last edited by BENIDORM on Thu Dec 05, 2019 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

olive
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Re: Villa Romana ( Roman Villa).Salar,Granada Province

Postby olive » Thu Dec 05, 2019 2:22 pm

Well done Gordon.

We took some visitors to the villa two weeks ago. As we approached I warned “ it might not be open, this being Spain.” Predictably it wasn’t. I think the winter hours were middle of the day Saturday and Sunday only. I might be wrong though.

Anyone thinking of visiting will find it quite easily leaving the A92 motorway towards Salar. It is on the right before Salar after just a few minutes .

Can you post a link on details please ? Where is the Town Hall?

Talking with a local there is another Roman villa currently being investigated between Esperanza and Huetor i.e. on the other side of the river. Do you know anything about that?

The other bit of news is the road straightening works north of Loja revealed a Copper Age settlement. I had a chat with them and had a look at some of what they had found. As it is a live dig ( though they have covered it up for winter) there is no publicity. There apparently will be on completion. Artifacts have been removed to Granada. The site is on the right about a km after the Arenales turn off.

Gordon- the tower near Realenga ( torreagicampo) appears to date from the 14th century.

olive
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Re: Villa Romana ( Roman Villa).Salar,Granada Province

Postby olive » Fri Dec 06, 2019 7:29 pm

It being a festivo and a nice day, we went to the Roman Villa today.

It was open and well attended but no guides ( though there was actually a member of staff on hand to answer ad hoc questions)

It must be ten years since we last went . What a transformation . A lot more has been excavated having been buried by around five metres of silt in the intervening centuries. Entry was free but normally two euros. The town hall is easy to find. Just follow signs to the centre. There is a small but interesting museum including Gordon’s fabulous statuettes. There is a mock up of the villa as it might have been with a pull out drawer below that helps you understand what the two large buildings holding the extensive excavations contain. Then go to the villa site. No toilets at the site , there will be in the town hall and definitely are in the cafe/bar a few doors down where Rustic Granada hospitality can be sampled for great prices.

Afterwards we went for a walk up to Fuente Alta. One of four gentle walks promoted by the town hall. I didn’t see Gordon but he was maybe demonstrating elsewhere or promoting Salar.

Website , aytovillaromanadesalar.es

BENIDORM
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Re: Villa Romana ( Roman Villa).Salar,Granada Province

Postby BENIDORM » Sat Dec 07, 2019 9:52 am

Olive, Thank you very much...

I do apologise for the delay in replying, the past week has been very busy and demanding trying to keep up with my various projects and yesterday I was exhausted and did nothing apart from taking my dogs for a walk ...to the Banuelo and Fuente Alta.

I'm really pleased to hear that you and other Brits took advantage of the 'open day' yesterday and glad that you thought it a very worthwhile day out, some people think that looking at ancient buildings is boring, but I can assure any doubters, it's not....give it a try.

It's more difficult for the guides when they are busy, but I know that they do a really good job of trying to speak to everyone and the talk using the Villa model and the film show is very informative and can be followed quite well for non-Spanish speakers.
Some of the guides do speak reasonable English , so visitors please don't be afraid to ask questions and remember to speak slowly and clearly.

This summer I was present when they uncovered some of the mosaics, fantastic to be able to watch the beautiful thematic images appearing after hundreds of years.
They also discovered a skeleton this summer almost complete, a female I believe , but I doubt Roman, from a later date I guess.
I was doing a little demonstration of stone implements and sling shots and they placed the skeleton next to me.. :shock: , so I got to know her quite well and was a bit miffed when I noticed that her teeth were in better condition than mine.. :(

The Interpretation Centre is open each week from Wednesday to Sunday including most fiestas, the reception is open from 10am to 2pm, and it is better to book by phone 675 967 432 or e-mail [email protected], although if you arrive early you can book then go for a breakfast at one of the excellent bars.
There is also a little shop at the Town Hall where you can purchase top quality olive oil ,honey ,cheese and roman bread...yum yum, also a nice range of Roman Villa gifts, reasonably priced and good quality.
And for anyone needing the loo, well they are situated in the shop or of course in any of the bars.
Finding the Town Hall is easy, as Olive points out, coming from the auto-via 92, you will pass the Roman Villa on the right, it looks like two big greenhouses,( but go to the Town Hall first ), you will then pass the petrol station on the left where they have an excellent little cafe and on a nice day you can sit outside.
Carry on after the petrol station and you will come to a large roundabout, on the left is the local cemetery, where some of the Civil War victims are buried, carry on up into the village ,go over a speed bump and turn right at the small roundabout and the Town Hall is just a short distance on the left, this is a one-way street with monthly parking alternative sides.
Park anywhere you can, usually plenty of spaces and when you leave go up towards the village and turn first left then at the top left again onto the road out.
It is also well worth having a mooch around the village, you will see the Palace and the Arab tower near the interesting church and some nice pleasant walks through the park and down to the river and the semi-thermal pond 'The Banuelo.'
If you walk around the streets you will also probably come across the Bar Communista and near is also a small private museum situated in a typical village house.
So I hope that you all visit and have a great day and remember if you wish to contact me I would be happy to give you a free guided tour..!

Olive, Thank you for the information regarding the recent 'digs', I was aware of them but not visited them, yet.

Regards,
Gordonious..... :wave:


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