The sprawling Roman ruins (included in the admission fee for the town's museum) tell a vivid story. Their domesticity is obvious, with elaborate mosaics, heated baths and trickling fountains that evoke delightful, toga-clad dalliances. But smack through the middle of this scene runs a massive defensive wall, splitting and cannibalising nearby buildings in its hasty erection to fend off raids.
It’s the disproportionately large wall that will first draw your attention, followed by the patchwork of exceptional mosaic floors below it. Here you’ll find the fabulous Casa dos Repuxos (House of Fountains); though partly destroyed by the wall, it contains cool pond-gardens, fountains and truly extraordinary mosaics showing the four seasons and various hunting scenes. With a 50-cent coin you can turn on the fountains.
The site’s most important villa, on the other side of the wall, is said to have belonged to one Cantaber, whose wife and children were seized by the Suevi in an attack in 465. It’s a palace of a place, with baths, pools and a sophisticated underground heating system.
Excavations continue in the outer areas. Eye-catching features include the remains of a 3km-long aqueduct, which led up to a hilltop bathing complex, and the forum, once surrounded by covered porticoes.
