Roman Lusitania. The origin of two cultures

1st July – 16th October

Salto de línea Exhibition curators: José María Álvarez Martínez, António Carvalho, Carlos Fabiao, Trinidad Nogales

Opening hours:Salto de línea Tuesday to Saturday: 9:30-20:00Salto de línea Sundays and public holidays: 9:30-15:00Salto de línea Salto de línea Free entrance

Guided visits

Tuesday to Friday, 12:00 and 18:00 (from July 5 to October 14 except 11 and 12 October)

Free admission with limited capacity. Get your entry from one hour before activity.

Free Mobile Guide

Visit the exhibition with our free mobile app. + Info and download

The National Archeological Museum discovers, for first time in Madrid, the history of Lusitania; the Roman Province created 2000 years ago at the ‘finis terrarum’, the territory today occupied by Portugal, Estremadura and the western part of Andalusia. Its capital, Augusta Emerita, was transformed into the most important settlement in the Western Façade of the Roman Empire and the first effective capital of the Iberian Peninsula after the administrative reform of Diocletian.

Structured into nine areas, the exhibition goes through five centuries of history in this Roman Province, one of the less known of the Western Empire, although the importance of its evolution, as much for its setting, at the very end of the known world, as the diversity of peoples that thrived there and the political meaning of its creation.

Society, culture, economy and religion are reflected in the more than 200 objects exhibited, belonging to twelve Portuguese institutions and three Spanish, including four national museums, five regional and six local. Between the collections are highlighted 15 objects of a great historic and archaeologic value, classified by the Portuguese State as ‘National Treasures’, that, as an exception, had leaved the country for first time on the occasion of this exhibition, first to the National Roman Museum of Mérida and now at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.

`Roman Lusitania’ will show works of a great importance as the ‘arúla’ (small altar) of Endovellicus; the Arronches stela, an unique case of inscription in Lusitanian language; the fresco paintings of the Casa de Medusa, from Alter do Chão; the arm from the monumental bronze statue of Campo Maior; two intaglios found in the Medellin excavations. The exhibition show also the Sarcophagus of the Seasons form the National Museum of Soares dos Reis, as well as a varied set of bronzes from the site of Torre de Palma, belonging to the collection of the National Museum of Archaeology at Lisbon and the head of Gallienus, from the Museu Municipal of Lagos Dr. José Formosinho.