Roman milestones in Lorca
The most visible milestone in Lorca is a replica which is now part of the Casa de los Marín Ponce
Relatively little is known about Lorca during the centuries of Roman occupation in the Iberian Peninsula, except that it was known as Eliocroca (see the second of three articles related to the history of Lorca), but what is certain is that it was a fairly important stopping-off point and trading post on the main communications routes which linked what is now south-eastern Spain with the rest of the country.
The milestone on Calle Corredera
This is reflected by the discovery over the centuries of various Roman milestones which stood along these routes, a copy of the best known of which is now built into the façade of the Casa de los Marín Ponce de León on Calle Corredera, on the corner of the Glorieta de San Vicente. This stone was erected during the reign of the Emperor Augustus (8 BC to 2 BC), and stood on the stretch of the Via Augusta road on the stretch which ran between Cartago Nova (now Cartagena) and Eliocroca (Lorca).
The Via Augusta was one of the longest in the Roman Empire, providing a route from the Pyrenees in the north-east of Hispania to Cádiz in the south-west, and roughly following the Mediterranean coast for most of its distance.
In fact the column which can be seen at the Casa de los Marín Ponce is a replica of the original, which is housed in the archaeological museum of Lorca, but it is a faithful one. 235 centimetres in height, it stands on a 50-centimetre-square base and has a diameter of around half a metre, tapering slightly towards the top.
Only part of the original inscription is featured, but this is enough to glean that it originally bore the words “Emperor Caesar Augustus, son of the Divine, Consul for the 11th time, 16th year of tribunal power, General in 14 campaigns and Chief Pontiff, mile 28 (from Cartago Nova(Cartagena) towards Eliocroca).
The current location of the stone is not its original one, and at some point it must have been brought into the city from the surrounding countryside. It was not until the 17th century that it was incorporated into the structure of the Casa de los Marín Ponce.
The milestone and San Vicente Ferrer
A curious anecdote surrounds the figure of San Vicente Ferrer which now stands on top of the milestone, a missionary and theologian who is the patron saint of the city and region of Valencia. In the early 15th century Vicente was preaching in Lorca, close to the border between the Christian kingdoms of Spain and the Moorish kingdom of Granada, in an attempt to convert the unfaithful and the Jews, but met with little success and soon became disenchanted with the place.
On departure it is said that he shook the dirt from his sandals and declared “I shall not even take the dust from this town”.
To gain their revenge, when the townsfolk erected a statue in honour of the saint after his canonization in 1455 they did so alongside the busiest thoroughfare at the time, the Calle Corredera, so that passing horses, carts and carriages would cause him to be as dusty as possible!
Other Roman milestones in Lorca
But this is not the only Roman milestone to have been found in the vast municipality of Lorca, and indeed there may yet be others still undiscovered.
In 1928 a stone dating from the time of Emperor Constantius Chlorus (305-306 AD) was found in Baldazos, near La Hoya, and five years later another from the reign of Diocletian (284-305 AD) came to light near the small town of La Parroquia. Both are now in the municipal archaeological museum, and a replica stands in La Parroquia at the site where it was found, next to the River Corneros.
This is an area of the Lorca countryside where the way in which land plots are distributed most probably derives from the system used by the Romans.
But the story doesn’t end there: as recently as 2012 one of the autumn “gota fría” storms resulted in flash flooding which brought to light another milestone on the bed of the River Guadalentín, and this one is also now exhibited at the archaeological museum, where it has been established that it dates from the year 8 BC. Although it also stood on the Vía Augusta the mile count on the piece is 48, indicating that it stood 20 miles from the one on which the figure of San Vicente now stands.
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