Excavations beneath the Gran Hotel Barceló in the historic city of Barcelona have uncovered a section of monumental pavement from the Roman town forum that is unparalleled in its age, scale and state of preservation. The discovery rewrites previous understandings about the orientation of the Forum and how it was connected to the main thoroughfares of the ancient city.
The key find is a section of pavement made of Montjuïc stone slabs (rock quarried from the Montjuïc mountain that overlooks Barcelona and has been a source of building materials and infrastructure for the area since before the Roman Iron Age). It is dated between 15 and 10 BC, the earliest founding years of the Roman city. It is made of precisely cut rectangular blocks, the largest of which is 1.48 meters long by 1.18 meters wide (about 5 by 4 feet). They are also incredibly thick, the largest being 35 cm, about 14 inches thick. The leanest height was 18 cm (seven inches). Variation made allowances for uneven terrain and ensured that the pavement was stable and smooth. The surviving portion covers 42 square meters (452 sq ft).
The area between Besòs and the Llobregat river delta has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The Iberian Laietani people had several settlements in what is now Barcelona, and when the Romans arrived in 15 BC, they conquered the Laietani and founded the colony of Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino.
The town was built with the typical urban design of a Roman city: two main streets— Decumanus And Cards — in the center where the Forum was located. It was surrounded by defensive walls built between the 1st and 2nd centuries and two main roads ended at the four gates of the walls. The Decumenes ran from east to west, from the Porta Pretoria (west) to the Porta Decomana. Cardus ran from north to south from the Porta Sinestra (North) to the Porta Dextra (South).
The monumental floor discovered under the hotel is parallel to the Decamans and stands on cards.
Until now, historians believed that the city’s forum, the civic and administrative center of Roman life, was connected to the cardo.
Archaeologists now say that the Forum was aligned parallel to the Decamenus, which ran from the sea to the mountain.
“For years, we thought that the Roman Forum ran through the area of the Plau de la Generalitat,” Massey explained. “Now we see that it turns 90 degrees from being parallel to the ocean to perpendicular.”
Both the Catalan government and Barcelona City Council have accepted the revised interpretation and plan to update the city’s museum displays accordingly.
As for the old flooring, it will remain in condition. The hotel plans to incorporate Roman remains found in the excavations into the breakfast room. It will not be open to the public, only to lucky hotel guests, but guided tours will be offered on special occasions in conjunction with the Barcelona City Council.
