About 8 kilometers northwest of Seville it is located Santiponce, a provincial town famous for the Roman ruins of Italica, one of the most important archaeological sites on the Iberian Peninsula, and for the historic Monasterio de San Isidoro del Campo.
Founded in 206 BC by Scipio as a rehabilitation camp for soldiers wounded in the wars against the Carthaginians, Italica it became one of the most important cities of the empire and was the birthplace of the emperor Trajan and probably of his successor, and adopted son, Adriano. The site includes wide cobbled streets and remains of houses with beautiful mosaics, among which the most important are located inside the House of the Planetarium, where in the mosaic they depict the deities of the seven days of the week, and in the Casa de los Pájaros or House of the Birds.
Italica also contains one of the largest Roman amphitheaters which with its 156 meters of length was able to hold 25 thousand spectators, the thermal baths and the theater, discovered in 1975, well restored.
Other attractions of Santiponce
Another important monument of Santiponce is the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo, a splendid medieval building among the most superb examples of Gothic-Moorish architecture in the province of Seville. Founded in 1298 where a Visigothic church once stood, the building has two naves, a polygonal crenellated apse and acute windows of great beauty.
The monastery is famous for being the place where the Bible was first translated into Spanish. To admire a precious collection of wall paintings of the fifteenth century, the sculptures of the two internal churches and the retablo by Juan Martinez Montanés, large seventeenth-century sculptures from Seville.
Ideal for a day trip, Santiponce is easily accessible by bus from Seville: from the Plaza de Armas station the M172 bus leaves every 30 minutes and its last stop reaches the Italica entrance and the monastery.
