The initiative is part of the Los Bañales Foundation’s new autumn program, which seeks to broaden the focus beyond the Roman city of Los Bañales itself and highlight the surrounding territory as one of Aragon’s areas with the highest density of Roman remains. Part of the program, focused more closely on archaeological remains, was already held during the weekend of September 19 and 20, drawing a total of around 100 participants across all the scheduled visits.
Roman inscriptions are an exceptional source of information about the people who lived in Cinco Villas during antiquity: their names, families, beliefs, social relationships, and even the languages and cultural traditions that coexisted in the area. Sádaba and Sofuentes, along with Castiliscar, will be the focus of this weekend’s activities and preserve some of the region’s most important epigraphic remains, part of a heritage that has been studied for decades by specialists in ancient history and Roman epigraphy.
Over the weekend, the Foundation will therefore propose a journey through the traces of Rome wherever they still remain, bringing the public closer to pieces that, far from being merely archaeological documents, make it possible to recover the names and stories of those who built and inhabited the region during the Roman period. This is why the activity has been named "Voices and Traces of Rome in Cinco Villas during the Roman Period."
RESEARCH, PROTECTION AND OUTREACH
The initiative ties in with one of the central objectives of the Los Bañales–Rome in Cinco Villas Foundation: researching, protecting and promoting the region’s Roman heritage, using scientific research as a tool to ensure that this heritage can be known and enjoyed by everyone. Since this summer, the Foundation has been developing an extensive program of visits and outreach activities linked both to Los Bañales and to the Roman heritage in its surroundings.
In this way, the activities on October 3 and 4 will offer the chance to discover a much broader Rome than that represented by its major monuments: a Rome written in stone, preserved in our towns and still capable of giving names and faces to the people who lived in Cinco Villas 2,000 years ago. Participation in the activities is free, and they will pave the way for the visit to Los Bañales that the Foundation, together with its network of volunteers, has scheduled for October 10 during the Pilar holiday weekend.
