Spain, a cultural crossroads
A journey back in time
Climb into our time machine and explore the cultural heritage of Spain through the different civilisations that settled in it. You will discover prehistoric settlements, Phoenician ships, Roman walls and the legacy of many other cultures.
Prehistory, be enraptured by Spain’s roots
ATAPUERCA
Feel like an archaeologist for a day at the Sierra de Atapuerca mountains (Burgos province): an exciting journey to excavations where human fossils from approximately one million years ago have been discovered.
CAVE ART IN NORTHERN SPAIN
Our country has some of the most important examples of prehistoric art in the world, the cave paintings of Altamira being the most outstanding.
MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS
Be amazed at the grandeur of some of the most important megalithic constructions in Europe.
Phoenicians and Carthaginians
The most important Phoenician constructions are found at the Gadir archaeological site, one of the oldest of such sites in the western world, which also has an important collection of utensils from daily life on show.
Most of the pieces of Punic craftwork conserved in Spain come from the Puig des Molins archaeological site, in Ibiza (Balearic Islands), where the Carthaginians founded an important naval base.
Roman Hispania
Walk on bridges and roads with centuries of history, attend performances of classical drama in amphitheatres or take part in Roman banquets in Almedinilla (Córdoba province).
SEGOVIA AQUEDUCT
This majestic work of engineering from the 2nd century AD was built to collect water from the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains and distribute it through the different urban facilities.
MÉRIDA
Augusta Emerita, today the city of Mérida in the Extremadura region, was the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania and one of the Empire’s most flourishing cities.
ALCÁNTARA BRIDGE
This spectacular work of civil engineering remains in perfect condition having undergone several restorations since the 2nd century AD.
LAS MÉDULAS
In El Bierzo (León province, Castile-León) you will find what was the largest open-cast gold mine in the entire Roman Empire.
Visigoth culture
Traces of this Germanic people in Spain are scarce and scattered throughout the country. The capital of their kingdom was Toledo (Castile-La Mancha), from where they organised a system that anticipated feudalism.
