AROUND
Villa Romana de Albir
In 1979, the Alfaz del Pi town council began work on a parking lot near Albir beach. During the process, bone remains from the Roman period were discovered and, during the 80s and 90s, meticulous archaeological work was carried out that revealed a villa, a mausoleum and an extensive necropolis, all dating between the 4th and 7th centuries BC.
Since April 2011 there is the possibility of visiting the two museum areas, making it the first open-air museum in the Valencian Community:
The first of them is the Roman villa, located on Bulevar de los Músicas street. Apparently, the villa was renovated around the 5th century BC, possibly after a change of owner, and this brought about a restructuring of the property with an expansion of the baths and the residential part.
The thermal baths have a structure of several rooms, including changing rooms (apodyterium) and rooms with cold water (frigidarium), warm water (tepidarium) and hot water (caldarium).
The second restored area is the mausoleum, located on Ruperto Chapi Street.
With a rectangular floor plan and several rooms, it seems quite likely that the mausoleum belonged to the owners of the villa.
According to the remains found, after the village was abandoned, it was used as a burial site, even defining a specific area for the burial of babies.
You will find explanatory panels, panels with ideal reconstructions of the villa and the baths and even a complete reconstruction of a burial of two people, an adult and a child. All the objects found and some burials can be visited at the Alicante Archaeological Museum (MARQ)
It is a short visit for archeology lovers, we leave you some links so you can see more photos and learn about the entire history behind this unique site.