A testament to the first Roman emperor, the bronze statue of Augustus rises from a granite plinth on a roundabout in Mérida, Spain. Erected in 2007, the statue was the centrepiece of the traffic circle’s renovation. Cast at Codina's foundry in Madrid, it stands 3.75 metres high and weighs 2.5 tonnes, with the emperor astride a horse without stirrups, wearing a muscle cuirass, and brandishing a staff while keeping his sword in his belt.
The sculpture was awarded to artist Eduardo Zancada Alarcón in September 2005. It was inaugurated in April 2007 along with another equestrian statue by Zancada featuring Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. This is not the only sculpture of the emperor in the area, as another statue of Augustus can be found in a roundabout near the Lusitania Bridge.
Emerita Augusta, today Mérida, was founded as a Roman colony in 25 BC at the order of Augustus to serve as a retreat for the veteran soldiers of the legions V Alaudae and X Gemina.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
Discuss this with the author and others
No comments yet. Be the first to start the conversation.