Conimbriga, a Roman town in Lusitania

The monetarisation of the economy was one of the first and most important impacts of the Roman presence in the region.

The diffusion of the practice of writing and the use of Latin was one of the essential elements of the Romanization of the local populations.

The Conimbriga aqueduct, which carries water from the Alcabideque spring to the city, was built around 10 BC.

The inscription dedicated to the Remetes Augusti is one of the best examples of syncretism between the indigenous religion and the imperial cult from Conimbriga.

At more than 3200 sq. m, the House attributed to Cantaber is the largest residence of the town.

The restoration of the central perystile and its water features, in 1953, made the House of the Fountains a central attraction of Conimbriga.

Mosaic and fresco paintings combined to produce the artistic environment Romans sought in their houses. These arrangements were often substituted according to fashion.

The water architecture had a climatic utility and a playful aspect in the sound provided, but also a very important magic-religious value, which is attested by the dedication of votive altars to the waters’ Lares.

The diffusion of Roman customs and ways of life created the widespread need for the use and maintenance of new types of clothing, which led to the appearance of laundries (fullonicae).

The same type of phenomena led to the emergence of public establishments for the provision of prepared food and drink, such as this one located next to the baths of the wall, of which the kitchen is identifiable.

The favorite subject, at least in House of the Fountains, was hunting, seen by the proprietary aristocrats as the privileged field where the dominus (the lord of the house) demonstrates his virtus (virility).

Conimbriga’s mosaicists appreciated genre scenes, like the servant of the house carrying a suckling pig and fruits of the field in a basket. The attention to detail of clothing is striking.

The house owners and mosaicists also devoted their attention to mythological themes like Theseus, represented through the Minotaur in the center of the Labyrinth.

The art of mosaic reached its splendor in Conimbriga between the 2nd and 3rd centuries of our era.

One of the many industries that the city housed was the production of ceramic building materials. A leading man of this industry, Maelo, was greeted by one of his workers: "Ave Maelo".

The production of metallic vases was another local industry of great expression, which is documented by the presence of cast molds of handle attachments.

At the end of the 3rd century of our era the city was surrounded by an imposing defensive wall, a great military engineering work built according to the model of the walls of Aurelian in Rome.

The representation of Christ's monogram replaces ancient representations of pagan deities, mythological scenes or aspects of everyday life in objects of common use, such as lamps.

The funerary tombstone of Serenianus dates from the year 579.

One of the most significant monuments of the last phase of occupation of the city is the Palaeo-Christian basilica, a church that was adapted from a previous domestic building.

Essential element of the basilica was the baptistery. The large dimensions of the bassin document the fact that baptism was, in those early days, received in adulthood and by total immersion.

One of the main motifs of the decorative sculpture of the late period is the branch of vine with its clusters.

The architecture of Conimbriga at this time reveals the artists' contacts with the new languages of sculpture and architecture.

At the beginning of the 8th century, the Arab invasion occupied almost all of the Iberian Peninsula. Conimbriga witnessed and suffered the effects of this invasion already in a state of great urban and demographic degradation and the Arab period marked the last phase of abandonment of the city.