Lépida Celsa: Roman Colony and Archaeological Complex in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical
- Civilizations
- Roman
- Site type
- City
On this page11 sections
History
Lépida Celsa is the site of a Roman colony in Spain, founded in 44 BC by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus on the earlier Iberian settlement of Kelse. The colony occupied terraces above the middle Ebro and became a high-ranking Roman city, although its prosperity lasted for only a few generations.
Kelse before the Roman colony
Kelse was associated with either the Ilergetes or the Sedetans, pre-Roman peoples of the Ebro valley and northeastern Iberia. Its position on a natural route between the coast and the interior, together with its control of a strategic ford, gave the settlement an important communications role. From the middle of the second century to the first half of the first century BC, Kelse issued its own currency. The coins showed winged Victories, Hercules, and Venus, and the settlement was the only known Sedetan Iberian mint to produce silver coinage.
Foundation as a Roman colony
In 44 BC, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, a Roman statesman and military commander who governed Hispania Citerior, established a colony at Kelse for discharged legionary veterans. Each veteran received cultivable land and Roman citizenship. Named Colonia Victrix Iulia Lepida, the settlement was granted the highest rank of Roman city. It was one of only two Roman colonies in Aragon, the other being Caesaraugusta. Celsa was also the first foundation in the Ebro valley of a colonia immunis, a Roman colony whose citizens were exempt from certain local taxes and obligations.
The colony’s name changed after Lepidus fell from political favour and was exiled in 36 BC by Augustus, the successor of Julius Caesar who became Rome’s first emperor. It then became Colonia Iulia Victrix Celsa. The new name Latinized Kelse, preserving a link with the earlier Iberian settlement while placing it within Rome’s political system.
Prosperity and abandonment
Celsa developed into an important communications centre connected through Tarraco and reached a population of approximately 4,000. Its period of prosperity began to weaken during the reign of Nero, probably because economic and administrative changes connected with the rise of Caesaraugusta diverted the main trade routes. The colony was abandoned shortly after AD 70, likely as its inhabitants moved to the more important and prosperous Caesaraugusta.
Celsa later possessed the only stone bridge over the upper Ebro. Remains of a bridge at Velilla de Ebro were reported in the nineteenth century. Modern excavations have since revealed substantial private and public buildings, establishing the site as an important archaeological complex administered by the Zaragoza Museum, which maintains one of its sections there. The ruins were declared a historical-artistic monument belonging to the National Artistic Treasury on 3 June 1931 under the designation “Roman Ruins at Velilla de Ebro.” They are now protected as an asset of cultural interest.
Remains
The archaeological site extends across approximately 40 hectares beside the Ebro. Its urban area was built on terraces rising from the river, with neighbourhoods of paved streets and multi-storey houses arranged around courtyards. The settlement’s surviving remains show how its buildings followed the natural slopes and how its public, commercial, residential, and funerary areas were distributed across the site.
Terraced urban layout
The streets followed the rising ground, with the principal routes running parallel and perpendicular to the Ebro. This arrangement allowed rainwater to drain towards the river because the city had no drainage system. Excavations have exposed whole neighbourhoods, including house blocks, shops, warehouses, a bakery, a market, major cisterns, springs, and other public buildings. The excavated urban area also includes a river-port quay, a necropolis, a forum, and possible temples.
Public buildings and theatre
The theatre lies below the San José sanctuary. Excavation has exposed sections of the stage-building walls and tiers of seats, preserving part of the structure used for performances and public gatherings. The forum and other public buildings form part of the wider civic area, while the quay, warehouses, bakery, and market reflect the commercial organization of the settlement.
Residential buildings
House of the Dolphin
The House of the Dolphin, also known as Insula I, takes its name from dolphins represented on its mosaic floors. It combines two houses that originally occupied the insula and underwent several alterations until the reign of Claudius, in AD 54. The residence reached its developed form during the first decade of the first century AD. Rooms 1 to 14 formed the family’s public and private quarters, while rooms 15 to 22 surrounded an open courtyard and served as service areas and accommodation for enslaved workers.
The house included an atrium, a central reception space, and a triclinium, or dining room. Its floors included opus signinum, a mortar flooring material incorporating small stone or ceramic tesserae. These surviving elements illustrate the internal organization and repeated modification of an affluent Roman residence.
House of Hercules
The House of Hercules is a very large residence and the first building at Celsa in which a Tuscan atrium was used. This atrium had no interior columns. Its first phase dates from the foundation of the colony and centred on the atrium. During the reign of Augustus, a second phase added an arcaded courtyard to the north. Rainwater gathered in the atrium’s impluvium, a basin beneath the roof opening, and was stored in a large tank below room 29.
Room 1 preserves particularly fine mosaic floors and wall paintings in the Second Pompeian Style, a Roman system of painted decoration using architectural effects and figurative scenes. The paintings depict episodes from the labours of Hercules, including the Nemean Lion, the Ceryneian Hind, and the Stymphalian Birds, together with a portrait of Hercules. The arcaded courtyard gave access to carefully arranged rooms intended for private domestic life.
Paintings and excavated finds
Wall paintings from some of the larger rooms belong to the Third Roman Style, a later decorative system characterized by refined ornamental schemes. Their surviving subjects include swans, floral patterns, nereids, and tritons. The excavations have also produced Iberian or Celtiberian kalathoi, tall, tapering ceramic vessels. Their connection with Iberian Kelse or with trade between Roman Celsa and indigenous communities remains uncertain.
Other recovered and preserved objects include Campanian-style vessels, lamps, amphorae, Pompeian red-slip dishes, Iberian ceramics, small bronze objects, sculptural fragments, coins, and pieces of jewellery. Many of these finds are displayed in a nearby museum, where they help explain the domestic, commercial, and cultural life represented by the excavated remains.
