Via Augusta

The strategic location of Epora (Montoro) next to the Baetis river (Guadalquivir) made this town become a landmark within the large communications network of the Baetica (Andalusia). Montoro is part of the Roman Andalusian Route nowadays.

The Via Augusta was the main Roman road which crossed the province of Cordoba. It was the longest Roman road in the Iberian Peninsula. It joins the Pyrenees with Cadiz with its nearly 1,500 km.

It was ordered to be rebuilt by the Augustus Emperor in 8 B.C. approximately on previous indigenous and republican roads, which gave it its name. This was the most important route of communication and trade between these capitals of Andalusia: Cordoba, Seville, Ecija and Cadiz.

What were the dimensions of the Via Augusta?

Most of the roads that take part in the Via Augusta were pre-Roman roads but the final shape of Andalusia arose from the long process of territorial organisation carried out by the Romans between the 3^rd and the 1^st centuries B.C. The Via Augusta measured about 262 miles (388 Km) as it passed through Andalusia, according to the Vicarello vessels.

The width of the road varied between 6 and 6.3 metres and its thickness between 1.20 and 1.40 meters. It was a very complex and expensive work and it undergone several modifications throughout its history, being restored several times too.

Why was it called Via Augusta?

The Via Augusta reached all the symbolic value that Rome wanted to show in all its provinces in the 1^st century of our Era. It was given the ownership of Augusta because the emperor had given his consent to carry out it.

What is the current state of the Via Augusta?

Some interventions have been carried out for the recovery of this inherited and emblematic space as it passes through Montoro which have been mainly focused on the improvement of the conditions of the old Via together with the consolidation and restoration of its materials, the increase of the existing retaining walls, canalisation of runoff water, vegetation and urban furniture.

It has been placed value on the cultural and inherited resource of this road, becoming it a pedestrian route as an exceptional segment of the Sierra Morena GR-48 great Route.