Yacimiento Arqueológico de Hijovejo

So that the self-guided tour can be supported, I am writing you some details about this impressive Roman castle. In this region of the Ortiga river there are about thirty-two tower-type enclosures, forming a control grid of the natural passages that allow access to the inland areas from the north of Cordoba, including the fords of the Zújar river. All of them are erected on a plain or, in any case, on tiny hills or berrocales. The set belongs to a transitional monument to the full Romanization of La Serena (end of the 2nd century BC, until the end of the 1st century AD), providing Iron II materials along with other Iberian-Roman or fully Roman materials. Structurally, Sonvejo responds to the tower-enclosure model, regular plant, with an exterior concentric enclosure. Its elevation consists of cyclopean rigs in the baseboards, the rest of the elevation (which is not preserved), of mud and adobe. The roofs that possibly consisted of a system of wooden beams that would support a simple framework are not preserved either. Its interior is divided into small compartments for surveillance and storage. All the rooms are attached to the inner face of the wall, they open onto a transit area in which what has been found suggests that there was a communication system based on fire. Therefore, it is possible that this enclosure had an ambivalent functionality: Warehouse and, at the same time, signal tower. Outside there is a large construction in the form of a ramp, whose function cannot currently be specified. A Roman farm was later attached to the original structure of the tower. Sonvejo is the most spectacular and the best preserved of all the tower enclosures, with the possibility of being able to be restored in a considerable portion of its elevation. On the other hand, it is an optimally communicated deposit, bordering a regional highway, from which the structures can be perfectly seen, and a few kilometers from Quintana de la Serena. Threatened directly and indirectly by a process of uncontrolled urbanization of recreational country houses, the site may be doomed to be used as an agent of socio-cultural enjoyment, if not to be progressively degraded until its destruction. Its uniqueness and the possibilities offered by this site to explain the Romanizing process of La Serena and the survival of the old natural routes towards the change of era, as well as to imbricate it in a cultural route with an archaeological base that begins to emerge: Hornachos (castle / schematic paintings), Zalamea (castle and sepulchral dystilo), orientalizing sanctuary of Cancho Roano, Magacela (fortress and schematic paintings / dolmen), Campanario (orientalizing sacred-funerary complex), Medellín (castle and Roman theater), Don Benito (villa Romana of the «Majona»), which shows the great portohistoric and historical wealth of the region. So I encourage Junta de Extramadura to give it a reconstruction or improvement in order to continue improving the wealth of this region.

A peaceful place that surprises

Remains of a Roman fortification of S. I a.c. Impressive and very didactic. Nice natural environment.

Interesting. Well kept. Didactic explanations

We liked maybe more explanatory panels would be fine