The Archaeological Museum of Alicante revalorises and enhances the value of the route of the Via Augusta and its branch Via Dianium through a new exhibition. The exhibition, the result of joint work between the provincial institution and the Regional Ministry of Infrastructures, Territory and the Environment, is intended to disseminating the history of this Roman road which crossed the current Valencian territory, providing the backbone of its main towns and places.
The President of the Alicante Provincial Council Luisa Pastor and the regional secretary for Infrastructures and Transport Victoriano Sánchez-Barcaiztegui inaugurated this morning this travelling exhibition which can be visited at the MARQ. until 28 April next. The event was also attended by the deputy for Culture Juan Bautista Rosellóthe technical director of the Alicante museum Manuel Olcinathe project manager José Manuel Despiau and the regional director of Culture in Alicante Concha Sirvent.
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Under the heading "Via Augusta. Master plan for the recovery of the Via Augusta in the Valencia Region" the exhibition exhibits through an audiovisual presentation, posters and different information panels the process of adaptation and enhancement that the Generalitat is carrying out on this branch line for the use and enjoyment of the public. The exhibition also includes the meaningthe tourthe itinerariesthe archaeological remains and the architectural landmarks associated with this route, with special emphasis on its passage through the province of Alicante and highlighting urban sites and coastal towns such as the cities of Dianium, Ilici and Lucentum.
Pastor, who stressed the importance of this project, which will help to revitalise the Comunitat and promote the Valencian territory at international level, has stated thatThis exhibition reflects, once again, the close collaboration that exists between the different public administrations in order to bring culture closer and to carry out projects that benefit our citizens. The recovery of the Via Augusta will undoubtedly represent a new tourist attraction for a province that has in this sector one of its main economic engines and that must bet, as we have been doing, to offer a wide range of possibilities..
In order to expand the content of the exhibition, the MARQ has also included various illustrative pieces from the period, among which is a groma that was used in typography to parcel out plots of land or a leather sole belonging to a caliga -sandalia- found in the Roman site of El Albir -in L'Alfàs del Pi-. The following has also been published a catalogue and a teaching guide which includes a special section on the route of the Via Augusta through the province.
For his part, Victoriano Sánchez-Barcaiztegui said that The importance of this road network is such that, at the dawn of the 21st century, it still constitutes the main axis of communication between our country and the rest of Europe and was 2,000 years ago the equivalent of today's Mediterranean Corridor. In fact, today's main communication infrastructures -highways, railways and roads- coincide, at the dawn of the 21st century, with the main communication axis between our country and the rest of Europe. 'roughly'.with the original layout of the same.
The Via Augusta
The Roman civilisation was the first to consider, from the outset, the systematic construction of roads. Through the creation of a road network of more than 140,000 kilometres at connected Romeas an epicentre and pole of cultural, commercial and political convergence, with almost all provinces of the Empire.
Roads were used for the transit of people, the transport of goods, the movement of troops, as well as to facilitate the administration and collection of taxes. They also became an essential instrument for promoting human contact and the transmission and exchange of cultural elements, ideas and beliefs.said the President.
The branch of the Via Augusta through Alicante runs inland, along the Vinalopó valleyto Campoamor and Pilar de la Horadada. In Roman times there was also a coastal branch road between Dénia and Alicante. The Romans laid out, built and signposted their roads with great precision, aiming for straight lines and horizontality, which they achieved thanks to a developed knowledge of public engineering.
This communication tool It also allowed military control, commercial and industrial development, the progress of its cities and even the very existence of Rome as a state. One of the main roads built by the Romans in Spain is known as the Via Augusta due, without doubt, to the repairs and rectifications that the Emperor Augustus carried out on it. With a approximately 1,500 kilometres long, it crosses the peninsula from the Pyrenees to Cadiz.bordering the Mediterranean.
The regional secretary explained that the Generalitat has drawn up this project with the aim of recovering and refunctionalising this historic route so that citizens can travel on foot or by bicycle along the Via Augusta and its Via Dianium branch and thus learn about the history of our ancestors. To this end, an eco-tourist and cultural route has been created, which will be equipped with the necessary infrastructures to be known and enjoyed, such as rural inns and hotels like those that existed at the time..
