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You are here: Home Leisure Arts & Culture Sagunto: The ancient city with many histories

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10/07/2011Sagunto: The ancient city with many histories

Sagunto: The ancient city with many histories One city. Numerous names. Always in the news. Here's a brief history and run down of Sagunto.

Sagunto is best known for its summer performing arts festival, Sagunt a Escena, and for the controversy surrounding its Roman theatre (which was restored at an enormous cost only to have a judge order that the renovations be torn down); but the town has actually been making “headlines” for a few millennia.

During the Roman Empire, the great Carthaginian general Hannibal laid siege to this municipality, which was then known as Arse. The siege, which began in 219 BC, lasted eight months even though the sides were vastly disproportionate and the town never received any assistance from Rome or neighbouring villages.

In the end however, Arse was taken and ransacked, only to resurface seven years later under Roman rule as Saguntum. Hannibal's attack on the town is considered by historians, the catalyst of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage.

The Romans built a circus and the now controversial theatre at the foot of the hill where the castle still stands. The theatre recently obtained a stay of execution on the judge's orders to tear down its alterations, and officials were able to put on its theatre, dance and music festival once again.



Like elsewhere in the Valencian region, Sagunto was conquered by Moorish forces in the eighth century, who again changed its name, this time to Morbyter (which eventually led to the Castilian denomination of Morviedro). Under Arab rule, trade, pottery and agriculture flourished until the arrival of Jaume I, a Christian king who is hailed as a regional hero across Valencia for his "re-conquest" of the land for Catholic forces.

Return of the monarchy

Another major military event took place here in 1874, when an uprising led by General Martínez Campos ended the government of the First Republic in Spain and restored the monarchy under the Bourbons.

It is still possible to visit Sagunto's castle, which is almost one kilometre long and preserves vestiges of the different cultures that resided in it at one time or another - from the original Iberians to the Romans, Goths and Arabs.

There is also a Jewish quarter in the old part of town, and a history museum that is housed inside a Gothic building dating back to the 14th century. One of the most salient artworks in the museum is the Toro Ibérico, a rudimentary bull figure hewn out of stone from the Iberian period.

El Pais / SU / Expatica
 
Additional links:
Tourism Sagunto
Hannibal
Sagunt a Escena

Photos credit: reidrac



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