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Roman facade whose top appears affected by its foundation ditch
accusing a sharp crash maybe caused by their weight.
These walls belonged, between the V and VII centuries, to a large
building disposed around a large central courtyard surrounded by
a gallery that gave access to other rooms. It is bounded by a colon-
nade which conserves the full foundation of the western front. Only
two of the marble bases of marble on on ashlars have remained, the
one on the larger southwest corner of the larger plants, although the
break interfaces caused by pillaging the rest of the pieces that would
configure a pentástilo front of 8.20 meters long are identified.
The central pavement of the courtyard consists of an area of opus
signinum with a clear inclination towards the center, under which
runs a hydraulic driving through the wall and runs diagonally toward
what would be its central area, which leads us to think about the ex-
istence of a water container in this space, if only as a first working
hypothesis as its typology can not be more precise.
Surrounding the arcades of the courtyard, we would find a wide
perimeter gallery which is fully preserved in the western front and
partially in the North and South sides. These galleries were floored
with a ceramics slabs pavement, preserved in very good condition
following a rig rope and blight alternate and staggered, interlocked
with mud and small wedges of shrapnel. They finished with a val-
ance blight along the walls. The levels of use of pavements range
from 11.00 and 10.47 meters above sea level.
There is a contrast, on the one hand, between the size of the rooms,
which is very spacious, and the apparent good architecture of such
a powerful colonnade, with irregular layout of the walls rarely man-
age to be parallel, which otherwise is common in the constructions
of the time, along the Mediterranean. The rooms are connected
by doors must save sometimes different heights; It emphasizes in
this regard the same access to the patio from the outside, which we
place at the northern end of the excavation, consisting of a pave-
ment ramp ending at the beginning of the courtyard with a bow on
columns that has been preserved of a shaft. Is this a strange arrange-
ment that seem to make a difference in height on the street and in-
side the building in any case lower south. It seems that the walls of
this passage open to the street or to an open space, which, although
unusual, is not new in Roman architecture. Here we see what could
be an entry that would reach the same courtyard and it seems to
have purely functional connotations, probably related to the transit
of mules, carriages or heavy transport (hence the ramp).
In the southern part of the building, in one of the rooms commu-
nicated with the courtyard, archaeologists found a well of excellent
workmanship composed of blocks of squared stone and mixed fac-
tory on its top and a system of vertical tegulas at the bottom, in-
tended to facilitate drainage and lateral collection. It is a remarkable
element due to its materiality and its possible ritual as its tegulas
had incisions with the symbol of early Christianity, the fish. It would
supply water to the tank, maybe impluvium presumably within the
arcaded courtyard, through a lead pipe discovered under the pave-
ment of opus signinum of the patio.
In short, we are dealing with the remains of a large building that
transcends the limits currently set by the excavated area, and which
would coexist with the remains of the traditionally considered bap-
tistery of the North end of the courtyard, which apparently was part
of a different building separated from ours by a street or open space.
Islamic remains. X and XI centuries AD.
None of the above lasted over an elevation of foundations. In fact,
the excavation of the Patio de Banderas proved the existence of a
great work of reform during the seventh century that in this area
has hardly left traces. We know that at least until the end of the
tenth century Visigoth structures remained standing, being finally
destroyed, and paving the ground for the construction of a neigh-
bourhood, probably a suburb. Unfortunately, the earthworks, the
consequent pits of pillaging and the building itself eliminated the
virtual previous remains as their levels of use were located almost at
the same level.
The stratigraphic profile preserved in the crypt starts its sequence at
the top with two Islamic structures belonging to the neighbourhood
built in the urban sector, which would be later occupied by the Al-
cázar. In the southeaster corner of the square (area now occupied by
the actual crypt), at the east of the main road, the remains of another
street converging this were found. Forming corner and fronted with
the remains found of two new buildings with a better cared building
than the rest of the houses. Their facades were provided with power-
ful foundation with irregular masonry and ashlars with corners and
brand, well squared in the purest style of the caliphate. The foundation
materials do not exceed the tenth century so it is likely that the first
buildings were built in this sector.
Although in the area authorised to visitors only thewalls, the street, and
a cesspool have beenpreserved, the excavationof the courtyardhas now
completed an approximated area of 500m2 of Islamic planning, prior to
the construction of the first enclosure of the Alcázar. Located in theory
outside the city in the eleventh century, the suburbwas distributed over
a wide area covering at least from the present Cathedral and Archivo de
Indias to the EnglishGarden of the Alcázar and lasted until well into the
twelfth century, to disappear during the transformation process of the
southern sector of the islamic city during the Almohad caliphate.
The remains found consolidate a spatial and chronological perception
rich in transformations and redistributions that draw a complex pano-
rama whose beginning is marked by the destruction of Visigoths build-
ings from the seventh century, the grading of the land, the continued
implementation of plundering pits to extract construction material
from the infra-recumbent Roman buildings, and finally the building of
a neighbourhood that suffer several changes until its final disappear-
ance, a century later.
From a planning point of view, the excavated buildings are adapted to
two different guidelines established by both paths, one of which was
located on the eastern edge of the current courtyard, crossing it diago-
nally from northwest to southeast from its current organization. At
least one of the houses found opened its front and door to that street.
Two other houses were found in the western part of the courtyard
although in this case, with the aforementioned dividing wall showed a
slight detour in the direction whose explanation lies in its adaptation
to a street that would probably be located in this sector, with North-
South arrangement to which they open their doors. In other words,
we have found several buildings belonging to a block with dividing
walls that reveal the distribution of the surrounding streets.
Regarding the roadway itself we only knowwith certainty thewidth of a
street that had at least 3.5meters between facades, ran through the cent-
er of a sewer discharges from collecting numerous latrines located in
adjacent homes. The network replaced the late eleventh or early twelfth
