The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-05-17

age to the totterinS structure, which
must soon disappear altogether.
To the right of Trajan'a bridge is
castle, built by the Romans and ad-
ded to by the Moors. In later years
it served as a place for the Bishops of
Merida; and afterwards it was oc-
cupied by the Knights Templar,
whence came its present name, ''El
Conventual." AT the suppression of
the Templars in Spain, the castle
was granted to the Catholic order of
Santiago, whose provisor made it his
residence. Little is left of it, except
a splendid court of granite pillars,
the vestiges of temple, a square
tank that once served in some mystic
rite and a series of some ancient
baths-t the rest of the great pile
having been Quilted by the French.
A tall, gaunt gateway, standing by
itself near the river, looks as old as
the oldest monument in existence,
but is evidently of comparatively re-
cent origin, as its marble tablet bears
an Arabic inscription. The triumph
al arch of Trajan, forty four feet high
though now a mere shell, haYing
been stripped of its marble casing by
dingy back street, dwarfing by its
sweep of prodigious blocks the mo-
dern buildings that surround it. Ma
jestic even in its naked simplicity, it
must have been magnificent when
covered with costly marbles, adorned
with bas reliefs and surmounted by a
colossal statue of the Emperor.
The Roman Forum, of which only
the arena and some broken shafts re-
main, may be seen near the modern
convent of Descalzos. Below it ran
the Via Plata C'Silver Way')-the
old Roman road to Salamanca. The
Roman Amphitheatre is entirely
ruined, only its outline and few
seats being traceable, but the theatre
called by the present inhabitants Los
Siete Sillas, ("The Seven Seats, "
from the seven divisions of it's
benches-retains an unbroken semi
circle, and it's vomitoria, or passages
for entrance and exit, running be-
meath the seats, are yet perfect.
Most picturesque and imposing of
all the Roman remains in Merida is
the Acqueduct, stretching across the
barren country from the railway sta
ton. 1t is formed of immense granite
blocks, with narrow, horizontal
courses of brick. Thirty-seven of its
| piers remain, some of them 90 feet
high and arched in three tiers, each
pier crowned with stork's nest.
Farther to the east, near the ugly
Spanish acqueduct which crosses the
Albarregas River (the ancient Alba
regia), are several broken shafts of
another Roman acqueduct.
The Circus Maximus, in a great hol-
low near the Madrid road, is well
preserved. Its dimensions are 1850
by $50 feet. The outer walls are of
enormous thickness, and many of the
original seats for spectators remain.
Then there is the mighty reservoir,
Ell Lazo de Proserpino, seven miles
north Of Merida. The granite wall
which dams up the water is gigantic,
with staircases leading down into the
! huge tank. Another reservoir, six
miles in the opposite direction,is call
ed Albuera de Cornalvo. 1t is much
smaller than the one above mention
ed, but the arrangement of it's steps,
in regular rows, incline antiGuarians
to the belief that Naumachiae were
performed here.
Besides all these stupenduous
works of its founder, Merida abounds
in other interesting relics-houses
and palaces entirely composed OF
sculptured fragments, exhibiting in
their mutilated and discolored orna-
mentation the inmitable traces of the
Roman chisels; gates of stupenduous
dimensions, highways stretching like
the roads of the Campagna, far over
plain and mountain; villas, whose ala
baster fountains and mosaic pave
ments reveal the pomp and luxury of
their early owners; temples whose
shadowy aisles and venerable pillars
have been consecrated to the rites of
four antagonistic religions all
ghostly souvenirs of the mighty
power now vanished from the earth.
You may visit the half Roman, half
Moorish palace which formerly be-
longed to the Duke de la Roca, a
noted diplomat of the reign of Philip
~. 1t is perfect museum of arch
itectural varieties-Corinth hian, Ro-
man, Gothic, Ionic, Moorish and
modern. Its entrance doorway is a
beautiful specimen of Gothic art, but
its Roman portion has been degraded
into stables. In another obscure street