Via sepulcral Romana de la plaça de la Vila de Madrid

About

The Via Sepulcral Romana is a Roman necropolis dating from the 1st to the 3rd century AD, located in the Plaça de la Villa de Madrid and its surroundings in Barcelona. The site lies below the current level of the square, but is visible from the street due to the urban design. It is one of the various heritage sites managed by the Museum of the History of Barcelona.

Between the 1st and 3rd centuries, Roman law prohibited burials inside the city, so the necropolises of Barcino were located outside the city walls, along the roads that led out of the city. In this context, the necropolis in the Plaça de la Villa de Madrid is considered to be a secondary cemetery, far from the walls, used for the burial of the middle and lower classes, including slaves and freedmen. However, it is the best preserved and most studied necropolis of this period in Barcelona, as only scattered remains have been found in other necropolises, mostly in the form of reused funerary monuments that were incorporated into the Roman expansion of the city in the 4th century.

The main feature of the necropolis is a five-metre wide road, the remains of which were discovered between the streets of Portaferrissa and Santa...