Extramuros
The aqueduct
The city's water supply was provided by a lead pipe more than 4 km long, which skirted the hills to the north of the city. Segobriga. This pressurised water conduction system captured groundwater from an aquifer located in the place called Fuente la Mar in Saelices, where the beginning of the aqueduct can be seen. Four mines converge there, two at the beginning and two at the end of a long underground gallery, carved into the rock and 225 m long. The waters collected in this mine reached the city through a specus or channel made of concrete, inside which the lead pipe was laid.
The water that arrived from Fuente la Mar was used mainly to supply the thermal complexes and the springs, from which most of the population drew water for domestic use, although some houses had underground cisterns.
The Late Antique necropolis
The location of the martyr's temple - the so-called Visigothic basilica - in the first half of the 5th century AD, associated with the memory of a local personality, was the embryo of an extensive funerary area with burials that would cluster from that time onwards around the tombs ad sanctos and basilica outside the walls.
The deceased were buried, following the rite of burial, in wooden coffins placed inside pits marked out and covered with stone slabs. They were placed face up and with their heads to the west so that their faces were turned towards the sunrise. Some of the excavated graves have yielded some of the personal adornment objects of those buried.
The circus
It was built in the mid-2nd century AD for horse-drawn chariot races. Excavations at the circus have documented just over two-thirds of its floor plan, of which six of the most important parts have been preserved. carceres or starting blocks and large sections of the side stands, including two main grandstands made of ashlar masonry located in canonical form in both stands: the authorities' stand in the southern stand and the judges' stand in the northern stand. However, the hemicycle at the east end of the building is missing, as well as the ponds of the euripus o central barrier that delimited the out and back of the race track.
The fact that the building was not completed does not mean that races could not be held. In the circus in the city of Segobriga six chariots were able to start simultaneously to compete on a 400 m long and 74 m wide track.
The Roman necropolis under the Circus
During excavation work in the circus, a section of a necropolis dated to between the 1st and mid-2nd century AD was found, which was dismantled during the construction work for this entertainment building.
The main funerary ritual was cremation, with ceramic urns used to contain the ashes of the deceased. The site is pre-planned in funerary plots on both sides of a main funerary road and secondary interior roads.
Alongside these, around 200 inscriptions - mainly stelae - were found, showing the use of the necropolis, especially by slaves and freedmen, many of whom were immigrants of Greek origin. There were also funerary monuments, as evidenced by the discovery of a remarkable collection of architectural decorative elements and sculptures intended for their ornamentation.
The Visigothic basilica
Segobriga was an episcopal see in the 7th century. We know the names of eight prelates who attended the Councils of Toledo between 589 and 693 and of three other bishops, Sephronius, Nigrinus and Caonius, buried in the basilica.
It is one of the most famous buildings in Segobriga and the first to be excavated in 1789. Situated outside the urban area, a necropolis extends around it, which confirms the funerary character of the temple, probably built over the tomb of a singular Christian buried there, which may have attracted the tombs of the bishops and then of all the faithful.
It has a rectangular floor plan, with three naves separated by ten columns, a central transept, an apse at the chancel and a crypt. The sarcophagus containing the remains of Sephronius, a bishop from Segovia who died around the year 600, was deposited in this basilica and was found in the 18th century.
Ctra. Carrascosa de Campo a Villamayor de Santiago, s/n, E-16430 Saelices (Cuenca).
Telephone Interpretation Centre: 629 75 22 57
Mail: segobriga@dipucuenca.es
Credits:
Design and implementation: Tragsa Group. Contents: Rosario Cebrián Fernández (Lecturer in Archaeology at the UCM) with the collaboration of the Tragsa Group.
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