AEMINIUM
(Coimbra) Beira Litoral, Portugal.
Mentioned by Pliny (
HN 4.24) and Ptolemy (2.5)
and in the
Antonine Itinerary, the name also occurs in
an inscription dedicated to Constantius Chlorus. Conimbriga, 16 km to the S, was in the 6th c. the seat of a
bishopric in which Aeminium was a parish, but ca. 589
the Bishop Posidonius was transferred from Conimbriga
to Aeminium, and part of Conimbriga's population also
took refuge there. In the 9th c. Aeminium took the name
of Colimbria, a corruption of Conimbriga.
Nothing remains of the Roman monuments of Aeminium except the cryptoporticus under the Museu Machado
de Castro. Two arches still standing in the 18th c. in
Estrela (next to the present-day government building)
were once thought to be remains of a Roman triumphal
arch, but they may have been ruins of one of the fortification gates of the 9th c. There were, however, some
Roman baths, called in the 12th c. the Baths of the King,
in the area where the monastery of Santa Cruz was
built. The aqueduct now called Arcos do Jardim seems
to have been built in the 16th c. over the ruins of the
Roman aqueduct. The Roman road coming from Conimbriga crossed the river E of the present bridge and
probably ran alongside the aqueduct. Near the aqueduct
was the cemetery. On the Largo da Sé Velha, remains of
a Roman building were uncovered, and coins and ceramics were found. Traces of the Roman period in Coimbra
are scarce, but the crytoporticus under the Museu Machado de Castro is one of the chief remaining Roman
structures of Portugal.
The hillside between the present-day terraces of the
cathedrals (Sé Velha and Sé Nova) was the site of the
cryptoporticus on which the Romans constructed their
forum, a huge artificial platform on two levels. On the
upper level, a pi-shaped gallery surrounds another of the
same plan. In each arm of the pi three corridors give access from one gallery to the other, and they are also
connected at the top. Between the arms of the pi are
chambers connected by narrow vaulted passageways. On
the lower level were other rooms, higher and more spacious, arranged along a gallery with narrow passageways
connecting them. This level was partially destroyed by
houses built against it, and later, perhaps when the
bishop's palace was reconstructed in the 16th c., the
galleries were filled in with rubble. In the debris were
uncovered four marble heads, representing a priestess,
Agrippina, Vespasian, and Trajan. In the excavations on
the site of the present-day church of S. Joâo de Almedina pieces of entablature have been found which
can perhaps be attributed to the temple in the forum.
The chronology of the complex has not been established,
but the suggested dates in the 3d-5th c. are certainly too
late.
Among the native sons of Aeminium was the architect
Gaius Servius Lupus, builder of the lighthouse of La
Coruña in NE Spain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. Correia,
Obras I (1946); J. M.
Bairrão Oleiro, “O criptopórtico de Aeminium,”
Humanitas NS 4-5 (1955-56) 151-60
P; id. & J. Alarcâo,
“Le cryptoportique d'Aeminium,”
Les cryptoportiques
dans l'architecture romaine (Colloques du C.N.R.S.)
(1973) 349-69.
J. ALARCÃO
