Cástulo, a city of legend

Cástulo was an important Iberian city, capital of the Oretania region. The occupation of the place began 3000 BC being based on the agrarian economy of the Guadalimar valley. During the Middle Bronze Age, Cástulo assumed importance and importance as an urban conglomerate, closely linked to the mineral deposits in its area of influence.

In the Iberian period, Cástulo is considered one of the oppidum -Elevated and urbanized fortresses- most important in Andalusia . Those were the times of the capital of Oretania, which founded its own currency as an Iberian city.

In 208 BC and after a year of war the city falls into the hands of the Carthaginians. In 206 BC, Cástulo lost this capital after surrendering to the army of Publio Cornelio Escipión, who besieged the city. Oretania thus disappears, since the region is incorporated into the Roman Tarraconensis. Despite losing the capital, Cástulo is still a very important city –now Roman-.

The Second Punic War It is the best known of the warlike confrontations that took place in the framework of the Punic wars between the two powers that then dominated the western Mediterranean: Rome and Carthage . The conflict dates from the year 218 BC, the date of the declaration of war by Rome after the destruction of Sagunto, until 201 BC in which Hannibal and Scipio agreed on the conditions for the surrender of Carthage.

With the beginning of the Second Punic War, Castulo initially allied himself with Carthage, an alliance sealed with the link between the Carthaginian Hannibal and the Castulonean Himilce, which guaranteed the financing of its mines for the Second Punic War. The unique 'love story' was sealed with the delivery of a well rich in silver and has made Cástulo the third most cited city in Hispania by Roman historians.

At the last moment, Cástulo would ally himself with Rome, victorious in these wars. Castulo, now Roman, would live her time of greater splendor becoming one of the most important cities of the peninsula, of which today there are vestiges as important as the Mosaic of Loves , the Octagon Mosaic , the Paleo-Christian crystal paten from the 4th century or the sculpture of a fierce lion , from the 2nd - 1st centuries BC

The archaeological interventions and the various finds show the importance of the site and show a great cultural and historical richness. The current archaeological site not only stands out for its high historical and archaeological interest , but also has landscape and environmental resources that provide it with a special singularity l.