Discover the City of Italica and the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo

Beginning the journey in Seville, take a scenic journey to visit the ruins of the Imperial City of Italica. This first Roman city outside of Italy was founded in 206 BC by the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio (Africanus) in order to settle his victorious soldiers which were wounded in the Battle of Ilipa, where the Carthaginian army was defeated during the Second Punic War.

Centuries later, Italica gave life to two Roman emperors: Hadrian and Trajan. Hadrian was generous to the town, which he developed into a colony; with temples and newly renovated public buildings and the third largest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire seating 25,000 spectators. It has been estimated that at this time the city's Roman population was to have been only 8000.

The modern town of Santiponce overlies the old city, and the well-preserved ruins laid out under Hadrian's patronage. A shift of the Guadalquivir River bed, caused by siltation following mass deforestation in the area left Itálica desolate. Eventually, with the growth of Seville nearby, the city was completely abandoned, resulting in an unusually well-preserved Roman city of Hispania Baetica.

The excavation of Italica began in 1781 and still continues today. Many of the best artefacts from the site are now in the Museo Arqueologico of Seville, including the famous marble colossus of Trajan. In Itálica you will be able to see the cobbled Roman streets and tile mosaic floors are still visible.

After this, we will discover the medieval monastery (San Isodoro del Campo) and visit the interiors, explaining the legends and history of this beautiful place, built in 1301.