Empúries Greek and Roman Ruins

Empúries, located near L'Escala on the Costa Brava in Catalonia, is the only site in the Iberian Peninsula where the physical remains of a Greek and a Roman city coexist on the same ground. The Greek colony of Emporion was founded around 600 BCE by Phocaean traders from Massalia (modern Marseille), initially on a small coastal island and later expanded to the mainland settlement of Neapolis (New City). The colony prospered as a trading hub linking the Greek world with the indigenous Iberian population of the interior. In 218 BCE, the Roman general Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio landed at Empúries to open the Iberian campaign of the Second Punic War against Carthage, marking the start of Roman military involvement on the Iberian Peninsula. The Romans subsequently built their own urban settlement adjacent to the Greek town, developing a municipium with a forum, residential insulae, and public buildings that remained active into the early centuries of the Common Era. Visitors today walk through both the Greek Neapolis and the Roman city districts on clearly signed paths. The Greek zone preserves the agora, the temenos of Asclepius, and stretches of city wall. The Roman zone contains the forum, residential quarters, and an exceptional in situ mosaic floor depicting the god Eros discovered in one of the Roman domus. The on-site Museu d'Empúries, administered by the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, houses statues, ceramics, coins, and votive bronzes that document seven centuries of cultural exchange among Greek, Iberian, and Roman civilisations at this location. The coastal setting is integral to the site's character: the Mediterranean is visible from the ruins, and the outline of the ancient Greek breakwater remains traceable in the shallow water below the shoreline. The combined extent of the two cities covers roughly 40 hectares, only a portion of which has been excavated; ongoing campaigns regularly yield new discoveries. The site is also notable for its landscape integration — a beach immediately south of the ruins and views across the Bay of Roses give Empúries an unusually vivid connection between archaeology and natural environment.