Caminreal and the lost Roman city of La Caridad

Just outside the small town of Caminreal, in the Jiloca valley of the province of Teruel, lie the remains of one of the most remarkable archaeological sites in Aragon. Known as La Caridad, it was a sizeable city founded under Roman influence at the end of the 2nd century BC, then violently destroyed and abandoned around 74 BC during the Sertorian Wars.

A city frozen in time

Spreading over more than twelve hectares, La Caridad was laid out on a regular grid of paved streets with drainage channels, lined by spacious houses built in a Hellenistic style, yet most of its inhabitants were Celtiberians, as inscriptions in their language show. Its sudden end left a wealth of objects in place, among them a famous mosaic signed by a craftsman named Likine. Finds are displayed at the Roman culture interpretation centre, housed in the town's old 1902 railway station, and in the provincial museum of Teruel.

The village today

Caminreal itself is a quiet Aragonese town on the left bank of the Jiloca, a place of brick and stone houses in the high, open country of the Jiloca plain.

Where it lies

The town is about seventy kilometres north-west of Teruel, beside the A-23 motorway and close to Calamocha and Monreal del Campo.