Two Thousand Years

In a previous post, I mentioned how there are an astounding number of museums in Lisbon. I realize now some are quite touristy and some more authentic, as I would call it. When scanning for options, I found one that mentioned free Roman ruins – Casa dos Bicos. We couldn’t believe it would be possible to visit evidence of Roman occupation here without an entrance fee. That seems like an awfully big deal, too big that it wouldn’t merit a ticket. All the other sites we’ve been to or are considering require a ticket purchase, which is understandable. It was too intriguing not to check it out. 

It wasn’t clear how extensive the Roman ruins at Casa dos Bicos were. Since we were going to be in the Alfama neighborhood, which isn’t terribly far but does merit a solid walk in the sunny, warm weather, we looked around for another thing to fill the day.  Boy, did we find it. Two thousand years of history.

Fish Sauce, Anyone?

When we walked into Casa dos Bicos there was a reception desk. In asking her how to get to the Roman ruin, she politely told us to just turn around. And no joke, there was part of it.  It seems as though when the building was being built, not sure when, they discovered remnants of a roman wall. There is a railing of glass which you look over and through a glass floor into what looks like part of an archaeological dig.  There was also a sampling of artifacts found at the site from Renaissance times on display and labeled quite well. 

You can see the cut of the blocks, where a wall was built up. This location is very close to the river and interpretive panels (always a fan of these) explain the Romans built a wall to keep the river and the marshy tidal area out. Of course, this is hard to imagine today, but we are talking about the period between 200 BCE and 400 AD. 

As you walk further in, there is more to see. All along the Tagus River, Romans set up a line of fish sauce manufacturing. They built large stone vats, called cetariae, to prepare and hold macerating, or rotting, fish. Doesn’t sound terribly appealing but who are we to say. And after all, fish sauce is a condiment we use today. One of my best friends (J) wields it masterfully in her Thai recipes.

The description of the process back then isn’t that appealing.  They would take fish guts/intestines and very small fish and layer them with salt in these stone vats.  At the right time, the liquid was taken off the top was as one product, often for the wealthier class. The, ahem, goo at the bottom was another product and more often used by lower classes. All were transported in amphorae and they had a few of those on display; the kind of item you see news stories about when Mediterranean shipwrecks are found.

Much like I’ve been amazed to see the still standing textile mills lined up in New England river towns, I could envision the long line of these fish sauce processing plants all along the river.  Astounding and incredibly well interpreted. I can’t believe it was free. 

I wondered then, because this is called Casa dos Bicos, what the Bicos means. I was thinking it had something to do with the exhibit. Silly me, it describes the look of the building exterior. The front has these diamond points on it, creating a unique texture oddly reminiscent of one of those rubber things you use to brush your dog’s teeth. Yeah, ok, maybe that is a stretch but this is my blog.

The building is actually quite historic, having been started in 1522 and of course modified moving forward. The website states that despite having changes made here and there, it is still quite representative of a Lisbon residence in the Renaissance period.  The city acquired the building and established the ground floor as an archaeological exhibit based on a dig done in 2010. That was what we were there for.

They granted upper floors to the Foundation of Jose Saramago. At the time, we were all about seeing this Roman site and moving on to the next one. Later, we were curious about who he was. Turns out, he was quite a controversial figure in Portuguese literature. He won the 1998 Nobel prize in Literature but was rebuked in his native country and even by the Vatican.  Portugal is deeply religious and Saramago was an athiest, saying things such as he respected those who prayed, but not the institution itself.  

Given all of that additional history we learned after visiting, it might be worth going back to see the rest of the building.  In a way it isn’t surprising. We are realizing that there is so much history here. It can be found (officially and in sanctioned museums and sites) tucked into locations here and there and everywhere.

Teatro Romano

Once we left the site by the river, we began the climb up into the Alfama neighborhood. We were headed to the site of a Roman Theater.  I feel like anything I write here really isn’t going to do this site justice.  I’ve never been to Rome or seen the Coliseum so for me, these sites we visited were my first experience standing there and looking at something that was engineered and built 2,000 years ago. 

The actual theater was built into the hill to take advantage of the slope, which is formidable.  You just walk up on it suddenly, really. It looks a bit like a construction site with a large roof covering what is exposed. The museum about it, which happens to be an award-winning design, is across the street and isn’t free. It was a whopping 3 € each.  Really? Really.  And the view from that museum give you a sense of how high on the slope it is.

What we learned from seeing it and from the exhibit across the street is that the construction of this theater was a statement from Rome. The ancient city, called Felicitas Julia Olisipo (…Lisipo….Lisboa….Lisbon), may have been a far western outpost for the empire but very important. A structure of this size, built to exacting Roman standards established by Vitruvius, the Roman architect under Augustus, would have happened based on a directive from the top. An investment like this wasn’t just wealthy locals. The grandeur, it held 4,000 people of all classes, was meant as a sign of power and culture.

After the Fall

What was fascinating in the exhibit was the story of what happened after Rome fell. The Visigoths, the Moors, and subsequent Christians seemed to want to erase signs the Romans were there. In centuries forward, buildings were constructed with their foundations on top of the ancient roman walls and theater foundations. Effectively it disappeared under new buildings.

Anyway, between 1965 and 1971, excavations were done on the newly rediscovered ruins. This is considered the first urban archaeology project in the city.  What they found reflects occupation of the site from the 4th century BCE to the 17th century CE.  Some of those finds are on display in the museum space, things such as an ancient deer figure from the Iron Age (yeah, humans have been here a long time) to ceramics revealing very early contact with the eastern world between the 8th to the 5th centuries.

I could go on, but you can read more about it from the website if you are interested. That is if I haven’t lost you already to a good nap.  True to Gail form, I lingered and absorbed. It is quite the story. Man, I love history. Why wasn’t it ever this interesting in school? (Actually, I know why. Check out “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James Loewen as well as a lot of other books about dumbing-down and white-washing history.)

Here’s a gallery of photos to round out the post. We were both blown away. It was a great day.