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Blanes goes back to Roman times, “Blanda Romana est!”

Which aim to know the Roman origins of our city.During those days, Blanes will dress up to revive the customs and traditions of Roman society.

Gladiator exhibitions, guided tours, street dances, shows, children’s workshops, artisan stalls… A day full of activities to enjoy with the whole family!

On the occasion of the celebration of these days, today we want to explain the Roman past of our city

romanes

The founding of the Roman city of Blanes would be between 75 and 50 BC, a date after the Roman city of Empúries, around 100 BC, and very similar to that of the center of Baetulo (Badalona) and Iluro (Mataró). The Roman historian Pomponi Meia, referred to Blanda as “parva oppida romana” (small fortified town) in his work “De Corographia”. This is one of the documentary evidence that indicates the presence of a Roman population in the municipality that we know today as Blanes.

A part of this Roman Blanda, would be located in the archaeological site “Els Padrets”, at Puig d’en Lladó, which was excavated twice in the 1970s.

There is no evidence of the exact surface that it could have during the several centuries of Roman culture, but, due to the locations of the archaeological remains, the population would be located on both sides of the river, forming an irregular polygon of between 3 and 4 hectares, approximately.

The main entrance to the town was, like nowdays, through the lands of  “l’Horta de les Ànimes” (Anselm Clavé Zone). This road led towards the Via Augusta.

The two natural bays of the coast, the one that goes from the top of Santa Anna to Sa Palomera, and the beach of s’Abanell to Tordera, were ideal places to tie up the fishermen’s boats and for the anchoring of the ships that made navigation of cabotage, being the city a loading point, unloading and distribution of merchandise of the coastal trade that later, through the roads and secondary roads, the products were transferred to the interior lands.

 

The life of Blanda extends until the Low Empire, as seems to confirm the possible find of paleo-Christian material dated in the 5th-century AC. Further, between the Low Roman period and the High Middle Ages, archaeological evidence and documentation are non-existent.

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